Dots, hots and haste

We are trying to make haste a slightly more attractive stat for classes that utilize a lot of damage or healing over time spells, specifically Shadow priests, warlocks (though especially Affliction) and Resto druids. We realize other classes use hots and dots too, but I think we can all agree that it's a bigger problem for the ones I mentioned.

I'm going to share with you an idea that the class and item designers came up with for 3.3. This is a work in progress so it's possible we'll end up going a different way after we see how it plays. However I also wanted to explain our logic here in case it wasn't obvious.

We have new tech that will allow specific hots and dots to tick faster -- the time between ticks would decrease. This means more damage or healing per time but also having to refresh those spells more often. Since there is a trade-off, we're not sure the change is a no-brainer, especially in the healing case.

Because of this, we are planning on introducing the concept through glyphs. Glyphs represent a great test bed for new ideas because they are easier to change (and easier on the players when we do change them) compared to core spell functions or even talents. If we like the way it feels and players like the way it feels and the glyphs prove popular or fun, then this may be the kind of thing that shifts from glyphs over time -- not unlike the way some favorite set bonuses eventually become talents.

For 3.3 we are talking about introducing three new glyphs for Shadow Word: Pain, Corruption and Rejuvenation that would allow these spells to tick faster with the more haste you have. There are glyphs of Corruption and Rejuv already, and we're not sure how we're going to resolve those yet. For Shadow Word: Pain, we are likely to rename the current glyph to Glyph of Mind Flay, remove the old Glyph of Mind Flay, and increase Mind Flay by 10 yards in the base spell.

Again, these are not promises (nor ponies). For a variety of reasons, you may see these changes on the PTR or you may not. If you do see any or all of the three glyphs implemented however, we wanted you to have some idea of what we were trying to do. Feedback is certainly appreciated, especially if you get to try them out.

We might eventually apply it to more dots and hots if we (and you) think it's a good change. We feel like we may need a patch or two to make this conclusion though.

We might apply it to more dots and hots originally, especially DP and VT.

Don't think of this as a "Shadow priest dps is too low" issue. Think of it as a "Shadow priests don't scale with haste" issue. Obviously the two are related, and I'm not saying you can't talk about Shadow priest dps. I would just prefer you approach this new feature as a new feature, especially in terms of this thread, and not as a way to "save Shadow."

Q u o t e:
It looks like it won't involve fitting in "extra" ticks, but it'd collapse the time between however many ticks you get from the spell by default so that the duration of your spell is shortened.

Exactly. That is how direct spells work. You have to cast more of them. That means more mana per second but also more damage. This is why we think haste is an interesting stat (for casters anyway) when compared to just straight damage. More haste makes you do different things than more crit or spellpower would.

It might get to be tricky with dots (and hots) because eventually you will lose another GCD. Fortunately Corruption and SW:P can be pushed into the autorefresh category.

Q u o t e:
The problem with haste is that it creates scaling issues. For many classes, getting 1% less cast time is about a 1% DPS increase, for others it's maybe a 0.2% increase. This obviously means other classes scale much better than others with gear, and you have to make balance changes every patch to fix this

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You are assuming our goal is to make all stats equally attractive to all characters. It isn't. We have no problem with say mages valuing haste more than Shadow priests. The problem is just that the difference is too large right now. When an item drops you should have to consider whether it's a good item for you or not. We like that different specs might approach the same item differently. We like haste in part because it has a lot of depth - did you reduce your cast time by so much that you can squeeze in an additional spell? -- that sort of thing.