Sp Aoe capabilities at 90?

[Antefex]

i cant for the life of me understand why mind sear was nerfed by 60% on beta a while back, was if the same for all aoes or just shadow? Anyway, how is it at 90? im just wondering how we compare to other classes in some Aoe situations now? any insight lads.

[Brusalk]

There was a blue post which stated that they nerfed MS so that the AoE rotation for a few mobs consists of multi-dotting and mind searing, and only once there's a large number of mobs we go all MS.

That being said MS is rather weak on it's own, especially compared to the multi-dotting and pure AoE capabilities of similar specs like boomkins/aff-locks.

At 90 in full pvp gear MS ticks for less than it does on live with H DS gear to give you a comparable answer.

[Hygeia]

I'm okay with reduced AoE capabilities, or even the "lowest" aoe of all the classes, especially if the expectation is we dot a few mobs up and AoE (we do anyway).

My two big concerns are:

1) Dotting up a bunch of mobs if we have FDCL or DI picked as talents means we either have to ignore the procs to continue AoEing, or we have to interrupt AoEing to consume the extra procs we're getting. It kind of interrupts our rotation of AoE, although I guess that's kind of what our rotation is all about this expansion anyway :/

2) AoE cap seems unnecessary with this kind of damage, also moderately demoralizing. If I pull 44 mobs and AoE them down, I do around 240 non-crit per tick of Mind Sear. Even for WotLK mobs that's really low damage and things take a while to kill. Solution: Pull less mobs? I guess... With AoE looting coming kind of kills some of the enjoyment of AoE grinding.

[Abaddonna]

So much for soloing Onyxia for mount? [Many Whelps AoE Can't Handle It!]

[Rubine]

I can understand them wanting us to Multi dot over mind sear if there are 3 or maybe even 4 targets.

However...that is only good if the targets are alive long enough for our dots to tick near full duration once we've spent ~3 seconds a piece dotting them all up.

With a bunch of little adds that die quickly though, it is incredibly silly that HOLY NOVA is more effective than Mind Sear. Not to mention that all 3 of our level 90 talents, while strong in the AoE department, are rendered basically useless if you are not ~25 yards away from those adds.

[Drye]

the 60% nerf was wayyy too much. I can understand why they wanted to nerf it and how they want us to aoe, but, if they want us to aoe like that they might as well add a %increase per dot on the mob when you mind sear.

[Twintop]

the 60% nerf was wayyy too much. I can understand why they wanted to nerf it and how they want us to aoe, but, if they want us to aoe like that they might as well add a %increase per dot on the mob when you mind sear.

This is eerily similar to the start of Cata where it took them months to give Mind Sear a buff...ugh.

[Abaddonna]

Would be so nice to get an Shadow Orb based AoE, that would give us a real choice in terms of choosing damage, even like an aoe dot if they insist on doting (affli and destro warlock have it, duh). And give more depth to the holy pow... sorry, shadow orb mechanics. Recolor it black and lets call it a raven, yey!?

I quite like the idea of MS geting buffed on targets with SW:P active, but they won't do it because "warlock already have that" (on AoE spread even).

As it is Mind Sear is back where it was at Cata launch, useless even on fights with multiple adds, Maloriak was a prime example: many adds + lived long = mind sear was still shit. The Issue is that in a situation like that, we spend so much time and effort on refreshing dots, that we don't have time to even use MS, 5 targets (and there where more afaik) x ~3sec dot casts = 15 sec doting, with VT having 15 sec duration, and swp 18 sec (not counting t14 tier bonus because that's just temporary). Sure you can get a few MS ticks in if you are an asian robot from the future.

Mind Sear is already fun in terms of unique targeting (and frustrating at times), but it has to be a button worth pushing... 60% my ass.

[Rubine]

I quite like the idea of MS geting buffed on targets with SW:P active, but they won't do it because "warlock already have that" (on AoE spread even).

Except pretty sure survival hunters had it before locks did with Multishot putting up Serpent Sting. I could be wrong though. Warriors can also spread Rend with Thunder Clap. And they obviously don't care about giving other classes duplicate abilities...otherwise we would never have gotten Shadow Power!

[Abaddonna]

Yeah but warlocks and shadows... you know, similarities... Just a vibe I get, that they don't want us to 'be like warlock to much'.

And I was actually talking about new MoP Destro stuff:
http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=108683/fire-and-brimstone
http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=109784/aftermath
And I was quite sure I saw somewhere that RoF does more (50%?) damage if Immolate is on the target, but might be old news (beta!) because I can't find it in the calculator now. Or just blind.