More balance and strategy in warlock shapes

[Arch-Necromancer]

I am currently playing a chain warlock and mostly use the chain shape, but I sometimes switch to enervating shadow to deal with bosses.

And since warlock playstyle is mostly just holding the attack button to blast, this little bit of strategy made playing warlock more interesting.

So I was thinking:

Why doesn't focused blast have even higher damage to actually make it worth using in some circumstances.

For example if you run into a big, slow boss that does not require homing. Maybe you would use the focused blast for max damage.

Cone shape for some reason has much better spellpower scale than chain and is then much better choice for multiple targets. They should probably have the same spellpower scale (or very small difference) so one would not stick out.

So it would be nice to get some balance here to make all ranged shapes interesting under certain circumstances.

I believe it would make the class more interesting to play.

[droid327]

Yeah Chain is the outlier. Ostensibly its because it has a wider AOE - it can hit mobs farther apart, and from farther away, so the devs felt it needed a drawback to balance that. However, in real-game situations, Cone is usually the better geometry, hitting more mobs than Chain, AND for way better damage. The situations where Chain hits more than Cones are very few and far between, usually just when you have several archers or casters really spread out in a big area. Any other scenario usually quickly evolves into something favoring Cone, because mobs tend to swarm at you rather than scatter.

Chain really needs to be tuned up to the same scaling as everything else. Being 35% damage behind the other forms makes it essentially pointless, especially since its not "on the way" to anything else useful. The max target limit on Chain is more than enough drawback to keep it differentiated from Cone.

[Cernunan]

Chain was the first of the many nerfs to Warlock since it's release.

Chain used to have similar scaling to cone, I think it was a tad smaller, but was the standout most used form after release. It was considered OP by some forumites, and after much forum wailing it was nerfed to it's current lackluster state.

[FranOhmsford]

Aura isn't really worth using till Lvl 8 at the earliest when you have both access to Spirit Blast and a decent amount of points put in Tainted Scholar for damage.

Cone is a Tier 3 Enhancement meaning unless you rush to get it at the expense of lower damage through not having the Tainted Scholar Enhancements you're going to be Lvl 5 or 6 before taking it.

Chain is Tier 2 Tainted Scholar -
- Tier 1 Strong Pact+Tainted Scholar Core 1 = Your first 3 AP on any Lock.
- 2 AP in Feigned Health and Planar Power = You can now get Chain!
AT LVL 2!

Chain is the Low Level Warlock's friend and it's also great to have as an option at higher levels when Aura or Cone won't do the job - Say when there's a bunch of Archers and Casters you want to take down but they've all run off and spread out....Just switch to Chain and Circle Kite!

If you're still running mainly in Chain past Lvl 10 you either LIKE the Playstyle {It's not that dissimilar from the playstyle of a Rogue Mech or Arcane Archer} OR you haven't realised that it's subpar compared to the other two options!

If I was going to stick with Chain all the way to 20 I wouldn't even bother taking the likes of Stricken and Consume because the time taken to stop firing off Chain and Cast those spell like abilities then start up Chain again is guaranteeing major loss of DPS!

Thinking about it....Chain might also be good for a Warlock splash on a Wizard or Cleric for players who hate running out of SP all the time.... It's FREE DPS!

-

Note however just how close the Chain Playstyle is to Rogue Mech and AA.
And also note that it has a HUGE ADVANTAGE over Rogue Mech and AA - Multiple mobs hit ALL THE TIME rather than just when they happen to line up for IPS!
The Devs CAN'T Buff Chain to Cone/Aura levels because Chain isn't comparative to Cone and Aura...It's comparative to Rogue Mech and AA!