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[Warlocks] Blizzard, I know you browse here. Let's all have a discussion on how to keep Kiljaeden's Cunning for all warlocks.

Precursor: I'm Gherkin, former MMO Champion Warlock forums moderator. I've done extensive work in the past in theorycrafting and helping people get the most out of their warlocks. I'm on the simcraft team (though not very active in the commits) and a huge fan of the warlock clan.

Kiljaeden's Cunning defines warlocks for me now. I don't care how much a dps boost it is or isn't - I cannot live without casting on the move. The change on the PTR is unnacceptable for me, but justified.

I want to start a conversation about how we can get this one last major change for warlocks to be made either baseline or talented. Not because the talent is an amazing dps increase (it is) in PVE or a very useful tool in PVP (it is), but simply because it defines a warlock as a different caster. There is no stand and nuke anymore, it's run and nuke. A warlock becomes a mobile ranged unit and can identify itself as more than just a Mage with a pet and dots. More than just a Shadow Priest without heals. It becomes more than what it is in essence, and this is what I want to play.

I recognize that KC is overpowered, overused, and just downright ridiculous. It is and I want to keep the functionality of the spell without it being overpowered and overused. We need to turn it into a smart talent that requires thought - not the "Pick this one 100% of the time" talent it is now.

Here is my plea:

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1) Damage

KC is a huge damage boost because it dramatically affects how much damage you can sustain in heavy movement fights. However, the only people you can compare this to are warlocks without KC. All other classes vary too much in what they can put out on the move that the only fair comparison is warlock to warlock.

Thus, we can immediately conclude that a warlock on the move will be either casting their normal rotation or substituting Fel Flame in a worst case scenario. Because DoT's have such a long duration now thank's to Pandemic, I feel these don't count. Instant's also don't count. Therefore, worst case scenario a warlock is cancelling a Chaos Bolt, Haunt, etc, average case cancelling nothing (or filler) and only replacing filler (Incinerate, SB, Malefic) with Fel Flame, and best case casting instants while moving (not changing your rotation at all)

Scenario: Run out of the bad stuff (3s). Fight lasts 6 minutes (360 seconds), and maximum output by the warlock is 110k DPS

DPCT per spell as a Destruction Warlock ilvl 510ish:

• Fel Flame: 40961
• Incinerate: 51629
• Chaos Bolt: 111809

The most amount of damage lost: we cancel a Chaos Bolt (~2.3s of damage lost) and substitute 2 Incinerates with 3 Fel Flames during movement. Total: 237535 damage lost over 3 seconds, or a loss of 660 dps over the course of the fight.

The middle amount of damage lost: we cancel an Incinerate mid way (.75s of damage lost) and substitute 2 Incinerates with 3 Fel Flames during movement. Total: 19096 damage lost over 3 seconds, or a loss of 50 dps.

The last amount of damage lost: we just finished our cast and use Conflagrate and Rain of Fire while moving, and one Fel Flame instead of one Incinerate. This is effectively zero dps lost.

Assuming all three cases happen with equal probability (they don't in practice but I have no way of calculating the true probabilities), this is an average loss of 350 dps per 3s movement. For simple fights like Nalak with a good tank that keeps the boss still, this is negligible. For bosses like Lei Shen where you can spend a lot of time chasing things around, this is substantial. If we assume having to move every 45s, this is a minimum net dps loss of ~2500, or 2.25% and in high movement fights is much higher.

I suggest the following: keep KC talented, with the following change - movement while casting also applies a stackable debuff (in addition to the snare, up to 2) that reduces the warlocks damage by 2.5% per stack. (Number negotiable!)

This fixes the balancing of PVE - the warlock is incensed to minimize this debuff (it still lasts for longer than the movement phase!) and extraneous movement is a net dps loss, just like every other class. This brings skill to the conversation and is a net gain for talent thought. Can you play well enough to mitigate this loss? If not, maybe another talent is better for you.

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2) Survival

Being able to move and keep your rotation up is a huge gain for any raid bringing in Warlocks. We have two good tiers of defensive talents, plus baseline talents in addition to be fully mobile. I suggest the following changes:

• Leave Unending Resolve baseline. We have needed this for years and now that we have it I do not want to lose it.

• Dark Bargain + Soul Leech is too powerful. Dark Bargain should bypass shields, including PW:S.

• Soul Leech cap is too high. 75% is adequate for PVE and in PVP it should be dispelled if it ever gets this high.

• Sacrificial Pact is good, but in PVE the pet takes no damage and is passively healed by random AOE heals. This makes it too good in PVE and fine in PVP (minimal amounts of aoe healing). I am not knowledgeable about PVP sufficiently to say what would make a good change, but I would want to see pets no longer targeted by AOE healing such that the warlock needs to mitigate the pet's health loss themselves, either by making Soul Leech a Player Shield + Pet Heal (not shield), and/or by allowing Drain Life / Ember Tap to heal the pet for a small amount

• Ember tap is fine for the amount of healing, but in an AOE situation it makes a destruction warlock very strong. Consider a debuff to Ember Generation after use as a means of making it cost 1.25 or 1.5 embers without actually having it cost this much.

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Summary:

• KC kept as a talent with 100% uptime
• Applies a debuff that reduces damage done by the warlock by 2.5/5 % over 5s. (Percentage negotiable!)
• Turn KC into a "Do I want to lose damage to mitigate damage lost during movement?" talent
• Modify survival talents to be less passive and more active decisions by the player

I hope we can come to some sort of an arrangement. Reddit, let's see what you can come up with. Warlocks need visibility on this issue so we can get the last major change for our class standardized and balanced fairly.

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