Why Warlocks outdamage Mages.
by Girlface | 07/08/2008 22:51:53 I know damage for classes relative each other hasn't been looked at in beta yet, but this has lasted in live for all of TBC. Mages even had a coefficient tax at one point. The core problem is that Warlock spells use more spell power per second before apply all multipliers. The only talents that matter for this comparison are cast time reducers: Emberstorm, Bane, Imp Fireball/Frostbolt; and direct coefficient buffs: Empower Fireball/Frostbolt, Shadow and Flame. The numbers: Warlock Shadow Bolt: 3 second cast, 85.71% -> 2.5 second cast, 105.71% 42.284% spell power per second Incinerate: 2.5 second cast, 71.43% -> 2 second cast, 91.43% 45.715% spell power per second Mage Fireball: 3.5 second cast, 100% -> 3 second cast, 115% 38.33% spell power per second Frostbolt: 3 second cast, 81.43% -> 2.5 second cast, 91.43% 36.572% spell power per second Frostfire Bolt: 3 second cast, 85.71% -> same. Unimproved by talents. 28.57% spell power per second Summary Shadow Bolt, the lower of the two warlock spells in beta, uses 10%(relative, not total) more spell power per second than Fireball, the mage's best. Warlock post-coefficient multipliers rival or exceed Fire and Frost and work on larger starting values for spell power. Frostfire Bolt stacks multipliers like no other nuke in the game, as totalled in many other posts. It also has the lowest effective coefficient of either "pure dps" caster classes by a large margin. Incinerate, for example, uses 60% (again, relative) more spell power per second than Frostfire Bolt. When starting with such a large coefficient disadvantage, Frostfire Bolt must make up a huge amount of ground on multipliers and crit. It does scale very well with crit. I am not interested in Warlocks getting nerfed. They are the only casters that can compete with the physical damage dealers at high levels. While nerfing Shadow and Flame is the easiest thing to do, I think it is far from the best thing to do. I would much rather see Mages competing with Warlocks and the rest of the dps leaders. They should. It's all they've got. |
by Koraa | 07/08/2008 13:34:54 Warlocks got to crazy land with the % modifiers to their damage output (specifically with Demonic Sacrafice), that's been toned down. Warlocks should never be able to out DPS a Mage with no pet out. Alike a Hunter, their pet should factor into their total damage output. Warlocks that sacrifice pretty much all utility talents should come very close to Mage DPS, but those who invest in group/raid utility should be lower. Class Designer |
by Koraa | 07/08/2008 14:53:34
Encase you haven't heard, it can now dish out 56 Million DPS. Class Designer |
| by Koraa | 11/08/2008 11:56:49 Players are right that Mages are in some cases getting more utility now with new talents. We'll evaluate the strength of classes utility when we tweak DPS output numbers. If a Mage spell is giving more utility than a Warlock spec, obviously the Warlock should be doing more DPS. Class Designer |
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