Taking A Dump

Back so soon, you say? Well, at around 2:30am, something lit a fire under my ass. And after only 3 hours of sleep, that hatred has lingered into today's rant. This will not be tanking related, once again. But it will be something that everyone has had to deal with in some way or another - threat. More specifically, Warlock threat. Even more specifically Affliction Warlock threat. Even more specifically, still, MY Affliction Warlock's threat. I don't really care about anyone else's. So let's get down to business.

The Facts, Numbers and Other Things Perfect in the World

Almost every DPS class/spec has an aggro dump or reduction of some sort, either through talents or a spell. This wasn't the case in Vanilla-WoW, but aggro now days is typically an issue of the past. Tank threat being so high and aggro dumps being plentiful have created a PvE game that lets players loose into a freedom of doing whatever they want to enjoy the game they play, fully. Unless of course you're an Affliction Warlock that enjoys using said freedom to get as high a DPS as possible. Before I dive into the specifics on this class/spec, let me create an overview of the other classes:

• Death Knight - Don't count, they're invincible.
• Druid - Cower(10sec CD), medium% reduction. Balance talent, flat 30% threat reduction.
  
• Hunter - Feign Death(30sec CD), true 100% dump.
  
• Mage - Invisibility(3min CD), true 100% dump. Ice Block(5min CD), 100% dump.
  
• Paladin - Divine Shield(5min CD), 100% dump. HoSalv(2min CD), 20% gradual reduction.
  
• Priest - Fade(30sec CD), small% reduction.
  
• Rogue - Vanish(3min CD), true 100% dump. Feint(10sec CD), small% reduction.
  
• Shaman - Wind Shock(6sec CD), small% reduction.
  
• Warrior - Umm... Yeah...

As you can see, Boomkins don't get an aggro dump, but a full 30% reduction with talents is more than enough as I have never seen a Boomkin put out enough threat to come close to my tank in threat these days. Also, you'll notice that Warriors don't have an aggro dump of any kind. Talents provide a crappy flat 10% threat reduction along with a 20% STR increase, which makes the talent a must have, but still provides lackluster threat reduction to a class with arguably the highest burst AoE in the game, Whirlwind (coming second maybe to Warlock's Seed of Corruption.) But (as I'm sure you already feel the same way,) a Warrior isn't a class that I play anymore, and thus, doesn't matter at this time. Moving on.

'Lock Talk

The point is, almost every class has either a semi-spammable (6-10sec CD) aggro reduction or a longer CD 100% aggro dump. So, now that we all have a pure hatred for the other class' in this penis-size contest, let's take a look at the Warlock's threat reduction.

Soulshatter
8% of base health.
Instant.
Reagent: Soul Shard.
5 Minute Cooldown.
Reduces threat by 50% for all enemies withing 50 yards.

I'm sure it's obvious to all of you brilliant people out there, but there are alliance players reading this, I'm sure. So let me spell it out. First, the good; Instant cast and a 50 yard range is pretty neato, I have to admit. It doesn't disrupt a spell rotation and most boss encounters require all enemies to be within 50 yards of the player. Now, the bad; 5 minutes. Really? Well, guess if it's a full aggro dump that's okay, I suppose. Oh look! It's not. A 50% threat reduction, cute. Very cute. Oh, this isn't a joke? Alright, cool, who do I get to smack around with a lawnmower blade first? Those 2 annoyances are pretty bad, in my opinion. But after 2 swift kicks in the Cojónes, there are a few more little flaws with the logic on this spell.

First, a reagent. Why? I really don't understand. Is it because it's called Soulshatter, and so, we are taking the action of shattering a Soul Shard? Again, very cute. But I'd rather be stuck with a name like "Dark Defecation" than be stuck with a group of adds in Naxx staring me down with my Soul Bag empty. Second, the health cost. It's not much health at all, I understand this. But the last thing I want to use for an aggro dump is a health cost. When you only have one aggro reduction in your arsenal that's on a ridiculous cooldown, there are time's you'll be waiting for a dire situation to use it. Again, is this cost because it kinda fits with the whole Warlocks-cut-themselves thing we've got going here? If so, I will kindly take an "aggro dump" on whoever thought that was a good idea. Thirdly, it's resistible. Logic set in place, a class with only one aggro reduction tool that shares the largest cooldown duration of all aggro reduction spells in the game, that costs a reagent, health and also doesn't wipe all aggro, but reduces it by 50% would at least have a 100% chance to hit. You might think this. But if you did, you would be wrong in the eyes of a game developer. Now, with WotLK came the removal of that ~1% no one could hit cap on bosses. And with 3.1 came the change to Suppression so it effects all spells. So, as long as you're hit capped, you should be fine. But it's little things like that that make me want to kick someone in the teeth.

So why is Affliction so much worse off than the other specs, you might ask? I'll tell you.

Affliction and DoT Addiction

As you may already know, Affliction's basis for damage is Damage over Time (DoT) spells. They're the reason you ran around that corner in Wintergrasp and died long after getting away from my range, Mr. Hunter. So why is this beautiful basis for DPS such a horrid position to be in? Bosses with aggro dumps. A somewhat-commonly found charade that bosses put on expansion after expansion. The term "Alright, stop DPS." comes up, and the Affliction Warlock urine comes out. You see, if a boss, or any mob for that matter, has what's called an "aggro dump" or "aggro reset", that set's everyone's threat back to numero uno. So while the Demo-Lock next to me can just stop spamming Shadow Bolt, my Corruption just crit for 5500 shortly after CoA hit for 1500. Alas, splat goes my face if my Soulshatter is on cooldown and our tank isn't quick enough.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Balthazar, this kind of situation is somewhat of a rare occasion. This guy should quit bitching!" To which I would say, "That was a statement, not a question, jackass." But you bring up a solid point, sir. It isn't an every-raid setup where bosses have an aggro dump. So what else crawled up my butt and died? Overall threat. It's like going back to the burning crusade on this character. If there's ever a reason my DPS is capping out, threat is it. During my normal spell rotation/priority I'll hit a point where I'll have to stop casting Shadow Bolt completely and do nothing but keep my DoTs and Haunt up on the target. This is a major decline in DPS. I've never not been in the top 2 DPS in 10mans or top 4 in 25mans, but while other classes seem to have limitless potential (save maybe Warriors, but again, I don't care,) I feel held back and frustrated. The "freedom" I mentioned earlier doesn't apply to my situation. And unless every tank on my server sucks at maintaining aggro, I don't feel it's my tank's issue. I don't stick to just one or two tanks, PUGing is a common routine on my Warlock - if tanks were loose women I would have 17 forms of herpes, easy.

Before I go, I'll touch on the final subject of Affliction threat problems. Our threat reduction talent:

Improved Drain Soul
Returns 15% of your maximum mana if the target is killed by you while you drain its soul. In addition, your Affliction spells generate 10% less threat.

First of all, any talent or ability that gives us more mana is 100% useless to me in PvE. I can't recall a time where I've been out of mana in a raiding situation. With Glyph of Life Tap, mana is (thanks to a new spell priority) infinite. And in dire situations, Dark Pact can bail you out. So there's no incentive to take this talent for the mana return. Secondly, 10% less threat is a joke. Always has been, always will be. There's zero reason for me to spend 2 talent points I don't have to spare on this shit. Give me the Boomkin's 30% threat reduction for 2 points and we'll talk. But 10% and some unneeded mana-gain isn't something I'm about to sacrifice talent points for.

In conclusion, I love my alt. But I'd like to be able to take a dump more often. Take that as you will.