The Problem with Being a Shadow Warlock

[Cceptus]

Upon making the ultimate and desired leap from Riftwalk 6 to Raven 6, Shadow Warlocks make the ultimate sacrifice for their DPS: the Leech cooldown reduction… I’ve been a long, LONG time Warlock player, and have come to really enjoy the Shadow rotation for PVE, especially since the skill tree got revamped, but as time has gone on and I’ve acquired more end-game gear, I’ve noticed that the Ice skill-set is becoming wildly more powerful. Very recently, however, gear has been favoring ice to an unreasonable extreme, literally leaving Shadow in the dust.

 

The 8-set Vortex Temple soul shield effects practically break Ice Warlock. With the acquisition of the 8-set, Dragoncall cooldown is reduced by 30%. When combining this with the Invincible Soul Badge (Magnum + Alluvion), Dragoncall is able to be fired off at an alarmingly fast rate, permanently with an instant case, almost as fast as Dragon Helix in a Shadow rotation. What’s more, is that Dragoncall also cools down Leech by 1 second on ever hit, along with Rupture. This practically enables Ice Warlocks to continuously be in Siphon, for once the effect runs out, Leech is cooled off, and able to be cast again. This makes for an incredibly powerful rotation, one that makes every Ice Warlock extremely happy, I’m sure. But, what has Shadow gotten recently?

 

Well I’m glad you asked. You know what’s interesting about the Vortex Temple 8-set soul shields is that they also reduce the cooldown for Dragon Helix by 30%!… So that’s fair, right? The only weird thing is that this is a instant-cast move that has no cooldown… So… yeah, it does nothing. Why wouldn’t there be an effect to enhance Dragon Helix for a significant PvE bonus like Ice’s Dragoncall?

You may be thinking, “Well, Shadow spec is made for PvP” to which I would reply, yeah, you’re right, nobody would use Ice Spec in PvP; it’s slow, unresponsive, and just not made for it. I understand. But that’s a reason why Shadow is so fun to play: it’s quick, spammy, fun, with beautiful animations, and satisfying with a rotation that makes quick and easy sense that keeps you focused. That’s just a preference to me, but I’m sure a lot of Shadow Warlocks feel the same way, and there are a lot more Shadow Warlocks than you think. I’m also sure many people prefer Ice Warlock, hitting slower but much harder. I’m not saying, by any means, that Shadow should be equal to Ice, but the discrepancy between the two specs is absurd.

 

Not only does Shadow spec lose out in the soul shield effects, but also in raid weapon power. Dragoncall has a greater amount of base damage as it is, but then also a much greater elemental boost in Raven and Aransu weapons. It is, however, very clearly implied that Shadow is still able to be used for PvE because there IS a shadow elemental boost on both weapons. But not nearly as much for a weaker move. What does all of this equate to with most end-game gear? About a 100K DPS DIFFERENTIAL BETWEEN THE TWO SPECS! This is THE SAME CLASS but with a 100k dps difference between the two ways they offer to play PvE. Here’s a video proving this:

 

 

Now, what should be a solution? Think of this: no PvP Warlock players in 6v6 are running around with an 8-set Vortex Temple soul shield; they’d get obliterated in an instant by any class. Of course, they use PvP soul shields, so an additional effect on 8-set Vortex Temple soul shields for Shadow Warlocks to close the gap slightly between Ice and Shadow would go a long way for people who enjoy Shadow’s play-style more than that of Ice. I believe that in the PvE soul shields from Vortex-Temple and up, as to avoid breaking Warlocks in PvP, Dragon Helix should cool down leech by 0.5-1.0 seconds on hit, for Shadow is drastically more reliant on Leech than Ice. Even with Limitless Soul Badge casting two more Wingstorms than without it, and maximizing the use of Imprison, there is so much (too much) time out of Siphon that DPS just absolutely tanks in Shadow. This kind of effect on soul shields is absolutely comparable to a 30% cooldown on reduction on Dragoncall in Ice spec. I feel developers have completely overlooked the idea of Shadow being used in PvE and have practically forced Warlocks into the idea of Ice for PvE and Shadow for PvP, when there are several classes that have specs that double as best for PvP and PvE.

 

Hopefully something can be done to buff Shadow Warlocks in PvE soon, because I do not want to relearn a new rotation, let alone farm the seemingly endless amount of materials that would be necessary to respec and max out new Ice elemental accessories.

[Nyaha]

tl dr

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3 hours ago, Cceptus said:

Riftwalk 6 to Raven 6, Shadow Warlocks make the ultimate sacrifice for their DPS: the Leech cooldown reduction… I’ve been a long, LONG time Warlock player, and have come to really enjoy the Shadow rotation for PVE

Before raven you don't even need any rotation. You can just get leech up almost instantly when after it wears off. I only started to actually develop and learn rotation when i switched to raven. I also started to train to do a sustain on pure rmb+f+4, which when perform ideal can make a lot of dps to fill the down time. (the ideal is when you can make the flow rmb>2>4>rmb>rmb>4>f>4>rmb>rmb>4>f>4 and so on). 
The basic idea is to chain your bursts as SB>leech>leech>SB with as little of a down time as you can. Remember that V skill is reducing leech cd by 1 sec at each hit. Also remember that 3 is reducing leech cd time by 6 at the last hit. I am always aiming to do 1 V during the 1st leech (not counting the initial V that will be always up when your leech hits), 1 V after that leech (btw salvo is reducing cd of V by 1 or 2 sec at hit), then folow it with 3 + V, after that the 2nd leech will be up in a second or two. And after the 2nd leech i am using SB again and the rotation is restarts.

 

3 hours ago, Cceptus said:

literally leaving Shadow in the dust.

Haha ha ha haha

Even if they can make more dps in the ideal situation vs a single enemy, the shadow is so much more versatile and will work well in any given situation. Ice build cannot beat that. Ice build is like a sniper rifle, while shadow is an assult rifle.
 

3 hours ago, Cceptus said:

Very recently, however, gear has been favoring ice to an unreasonable extreme

The only piece of gear that favorite ice build is the VT soulshield. Raven weapon and the bracelet are much more useful to the shadow build. Because the bonus % to skill dmg is almost the same, but shadow warlock can dish out a lot more 4 nukes than ice (especially before VT ss).
Also, the next soulshield tier will bring some benefits to the shadow build, so even the argument about the end game gear being so favoritable to ice will take a hit.

 

Though if you are not getting the fun from mastering the shadow rotations, and all you want is to do max dps on a single target - then you can just switch to the ice.
Dark side is not for everyone :p

[Squishyy]

I think in KR, the VT Shoulshield gives Dragonhelix a damage increase instead,since it alrdy has 0 CD uwu

[GrimmxD]

ur right, I'm main shadow wl too. I think we will have good updates for shadow wl soon. since they fixed the speed for the RMB, we won't miss a dragon helix, cuz helix faster than RMB: wink: and they said in the latter they are planning to close the gab between every ele in each class

[xNina]

Make ice good for pvp as shadow are, if they make both element do same dmg in pve but in pvp ice is a complete garbage and this si not fair at all

[Sacro]

TBH they could easily change the CDR to Helix on VT badge to buff Salvo instead. Wouldn't make things unbalanced at all. In fact it might even fix that gap :)

[Cercueil]

On 2/1/2018 at 10:05 AM, Cceptus said:

Well I’m glad you asked. You know what’s interesting about the Vortex Temple 8-set soul shields is that they also reduce the cooldown for Dragon Helix by 30%!…

Lol I kinda saw this coming and it really did. Too funny! XD

I have been refusing to go ice since WL was released on NA cos I never get the chance to play shadow on CN. But after all the abuse, neglect and $%!çA done by Master Hong in Circle of Sundering, I have finally given in and will be switching to ice. I mean it is possible to defeat him, but I highly doubt shadow can beat him under 1min unless one is geared to the teeth and ofc, good rng. By good rng, I mean, have weapon skill reset while your blue Wingstorm is still up and Master Hong won't give you a hard time with his hadoken death zones. 

Since OP mentioned Dysfunctional Dragon Helix cd buff, let talk about shadow Wingstorm buff from the latest update. We all know that shadow Wingstorm has been buffed up, which works quite well with Limitless Soul Badge, except that badge doesn't give us an instant Wingstorm like Ice WL's and you have to waste 1sec to cast it. You may say oh it is just 1sec, but guess how many 1sec is there during SB? Unless you want to open with Soul shackle, leech and then blue Wingstorm, but what happens to that 10sec cd reduction on Wingstorm? Not to mention Leech can reset Wingstorm... Oh don't forget that leech has a long animation! Perhaps opening with Imprison, Blue Wingstorm and SB together will work?  Well here is the bad news, you just wasted a few second of your Soul buff. I'd really want them to remove that purple rmb and make Limitless Soul Badge gives blue Wingstorm. Oh maybe add a speed buff for our ss (Eclipse)? I don't think they can cure the Thrall's IQ though, so I am not even gonna bother with that one. XD LOL

[Nyaha]

22 hours ago, Cercueil said:

We all know that shadow Wingstorm has been buffed up

In what way?

 

Also - limitless is not the only option for shadow badge. Old good legacy is still a neat option. If you have ok pc and connection and can reliably cast wingstorm 3 times during leech - you can use legacy for extra burst time. And it also reduces the time gaps between leech bursts.

[apachwe]

warlock is dead after awakening both in pve and pvp dont bother with it. i am a warlock and i wish i could switch classes