Curses were meant to be Warlock’s main thing, I remember the hype during launch when they showcased it would have 5 new curses. I am pretty sure no-one cares about what they do other than Torment and Acid skin.
Much of Warlock’s defenses and offenses are based around the target having multiple curses but there are very limited sources of application for the new curses. It feels like the class is heavily reliant on the one Cursed Blood node in Chaos Bolts to refresh curse duration. This is particularly annoying for Low life builds as the health gain pushes you out of low life(which some nodes in Warlock are reliant on).
Damned is the weakest of the stacking ailments with the least unique support (and a really bad set)
Witchfire is just so awkward, the cooldown is fine but the spread condition is so bad(and also bugged I believe).
Aspect of Death, this node is so unrealistically bad 0.2% more damage per ailment on you upto 90 ailments. Who is going to go and get hit by 90 ailments for 18% more damage. How do you even get that many when most ailments last 2-3 seconds?
Suggestions:
Add more ways to proc curses such as giving Decrepify to Chaos bolts, Acid skin to Soul Feast, Penance to Ghostflame, etc. Also add curse duration to some nodes in the Warlock tree (and maybe some idols as well).
Make Possess into a curse. This is the most underutilised aspect of the Hungering souls skill. Making it a curse will give the flat curse damage to spells another skill to synergize with rather than just Torment.
Give Damned the Frostbite treatment(increased base damage) I doubt this will fully resolve its problems as it has much less unique support but it will be a start.
Reduce Ghostflame’s mana cost it is ridiculously prohibitive to cast, change the Flames of Misery node to depend on ignite chance with Fire skills and damned chance with Necrotic skills.
It would be simpler to just have your Fire/necrotic spells proc witchfire when the overloads are active. Or just make it into a 10-15m aura with a visual like aura of decay.
Rework Aspect of Death, 5% more damage per different ailment on you.
Beacon of Torment node is pretty underpowered considering you are also losing a curse along with the spirits, buffing it to +5 should help hit based Warlocks maybe even give it +5 melee damage for Harvest.
Chthonic Aurora (Chaos bolts) is another ridiculous mana cost, should be reduced to atleast +2 per point.
I played none of the 2 mentioend ones and still did plenty of different Warlock setups very successfully. My favorite one is still Hit/Crit Chaos Bolt.
Just because specific types of builds are giving a lot of attention by the community or content creators/build sites doesn’t mean there isn’t more.
Agreed, curses are basically just some passives that you apply and they are a more multiplier to your damage, but they don’t do anything build enabling or build defining.
I would have wishes for at least 1 or 2 new active curses. Maybe one Warlock Exclusive one and one non-Warlock exclusive one. So the other 2 Acolyte specs get a new curse as well to integrate into existing builds.
The bolded part is what I absolutely despise as well. For many curses there is only a singular skill that can apply it.
There should be at least 2 or 3 different ways to apply each type of curse. So you can mix and match different ways of application into different builds.
I see myself using the same skill in many different builds, jsut because its the only source of one particualr curse. Even though the rest of the skill isn’t doing much for my build.
It is an interesting node and you really don’t have to take it. But it does work in particular cases. I don’t have a problem with having somehing at the end of the passive tree, that has a lot of potential, but is not utilized by a lot of builds.
It is still interesting enough and gives a lot of value if you work around it.
Disagree, it is a particular powerful node, that really requries to invest into mana sustain. If you don’t do that oyu can only run 0-1 points in this passive.
The recent additions of -3 - -5 mana cost for caster weapons really helped making this node mroe viable if you roll a -5 cost. I still think we need these kind of nodes that requrie heavy investment, but once you do the pay-off is gigantic.
I have also been testing a few Warlock setups and the results are extremely underwhelming and I don’t see any other builds for the same as well. I have tried Damned, Damned+Ignite and hit/crit Chaos bolts and the damage is just not there especially for bosses.
I think Possess becoming a curse would resolve this as its already non-exclusive.
But I don’t see any way of using it to its full potential and even if you can, 90 stacks of an ailment seems like way to heavy(heh) of a drawback. I feel it would be better reworked to give a set 5% per unique ailment on you.
Even with a -5 wand it is still a 25 mana cost per cast which is ridiculous for a skill like this.
Then we have very different experiences. My Hit/Crit Chaos Warlock is one of the strongest builds I have played, so much so, that I still think Warlock as a mastery is just a bit too powerfull, or the other masteries just need some power buffs.
Not really, Hungering Souls is a very boring skill and it needs a major overhaul.
I would love to see 1 or 2 new curses with compeltely new and modern skill spec tree, that are highly customizeable. Maybe even customize the effect that the curse does to a certain degree.
No its not ridicilous, if you spend so much points into it you just need to play differently. go a bit less for cast speed and counteract the mana cost as much as possible.
Projectile amount is a more multiplier to the skills damage. More projectiles = more dmg with Chaos Bolt itself and more hits, which means more hits, which means more ailments and triggered effects.
