Re: "Rolling" Corruption/SW:P Ticks

As seen in this thread.


I thought I'd bring this subject up under favorable terms for discussion rather than wait for the potential nerf cries later.

Essentially, we've got two talents: Everlasting Afflictions (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47205) and Pain & Suffering (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47582) that auto-refresh our primary "big DoT" - Corruption and Shadow Word: Pain, respectively. The kicker here isn't the saved global cooldowns, which while nice pales in comparison to being able to keep a very large tick "rolling" similar to the Lifeblooms and Ignites of yore. IE right now I pop Hex Shrunken Head, cast Corruption, and for as long as I can cast Drain Life or Haunt every 18 seconds to keep it refreshed I keep that big tick.

Right now it's only worth around 100 DPS or so- not so large a sum. I'm not too worried about it because it doesn't have nearly the potential that rolling ignites did (rolling ignites kept getting bigger and bigger each proc for near infinite potential only limited by aggro) but Corr/SWP don't ramp up at all- they merely sustains a tick at the highest Spellpower value you could muster when you cast it. Nor does it have the impact of rolling Lifeblooms as it isn't an integral part of keeping a tank alive, just a slight DPS boost. That being said there is potential for this to get much larger in a "if the stars aligned" situation where you have a few procs active at the same time as well as activate a trinket. This would be fairly rare to get everything to fall together perfectly.

My point here is I think this is a very interesting mechanic to watch procs for, save trinkets/potions/etc for to try and get a large tick sustained through fights where keeping the debuff going is feasible. It really adds another level of fun/metagaming which makes thing much more engaging. Also, if this were "fixed" the only way I could see it working would be to have it take the spellpower at time of reapplication into account, which while feasible on paper would practically neuter DPS because not only would the Corr/SWP ticks not be able to "roll" any longer, but they would immediately lose any "natural" spellpower boost obtained from a trinket that would otherwise be maintained over 18 second duration of the DoT as soon as Haunt/Mindflay deals damage. IE a Corruption cast midway through a trinket doesn't even get a full 18 seconds worth of bonus spellpower as it would have before EA/P&S were implemented.

So in conclusion I'd like to say this is a very interesting and enjoyable mechanic and I'm asking now while Warlock/Spriest DPS is low relative to other classes to please take these talents into account as-is when balancing/buffing us in the future. "Fixing" this (assuming it's not intended to begin with) would hurt just as much as it would help in addition to ruining any fun factor and reward for exceptional DPS management. Balance us around having said perpetual Corruption/SWP ticks (on fights that support it) while also keeping in mind that this won't actually be sustainable on many/most fights simply due to general required encounter interactions/stuns/silences/debuff wipes/etc that won't even allow to keep said DoTs rolling.


Looking forward to further discussion on this matter!