What's the deal with my Imp?

#0 - Feb. 14, 2007, 4:15 p.m.

Seriously, someone -- what is my Imp good for anymore?

I never did the outrageous 40/xx Machinegun Imp spec.

I used him occasionally for some "free" DPS, which lasted all of 15 seconds. Now there is no reason to bring him out of Phase Shift, ever, because his +stam buff is better than whatever DPS he can contribute.

I'd just like to hear the logic. I mean, any Lock can tell you that the reason why the Imp was bugged was primarily because of the bugged Demonology talents -- Unholy Power and Demonic Knowledge -- so why did you have to lower the Imp's coefficient AND nerf Improved Fireball as well?

At +500-ish shadow damage, my imp was doing pretty paltry DPS -- maybe 250-ish per hit? I don't find a problem with that, seeing as even someone 5 levels below me can one-shot him.

So I'm not asking you to change it back. I just want to know what motivated these changes, seeing as the problem could have been fixed without this scale of an impact on marginal, situational DPS. I personally don't mind the nerf that much, from a gameplay perspective -- since it's on the scale of nerfing Firestone or Health Funnel or Aftermath -- but because it's the nerf of something fairly useless into something completely useless, I am just utterly confused as to why someone decided to take the time to code such a waste of time into the game.

P.S. - How the hell do I get my avatar to update? I haven't been 60 in weeks!

Tseric

#8 - Feb. 14, 2007, 5:33 p.m.

The coefficient has been removed until we can get the proper spell damage fix into the game. When the coefficient was being applied incorrectly, utilizing talents created a dps output for the Imp which simply could not exist in the game without being a large and unintended advantage.

While the removal of the coefficient is somewhat extreme, it is a temporary measure. In a game state, it is no different than having your Imp on passive, so we are settling with that for now until we get the proper fix in.

Tseric

#22 - Feb. 14, 2007, 6:28 p.m.

Q u o t e:

My apologies for not being more clear.

People on the Warlock forums are reporting that the Improved Fireball talent now reduces casting time by 0.25 seconds per point instead of .5 seconds per point, and that the Imp is now recieving somewhere in the neighborhood of 8.25% spell damage (I believe), which I guess is on the PTRs. But it also appears that the Imp is still getting (apparently) unintentional bonuses from Demonic Knowledge and Unholy Power.

I see what you're saying. Give me some time to touch base with the designers and I'll see what kind of info I can get. I've got an idea of what is going on here, but I'd prefer to get feedback from the devs before I go speculating as to the nature of this. ;)

Tseric

#90 - Feb. 24, 2007, 11:58 p.m.

Ah, I was looking for this thread...

The spell damage coefficients have been reapplied to the imp, but they are obviously lower than before.

In regard to the improved firebolt, this was a design change that was backlogged for a while because of the nature of the casting time.

This talent has not been working correctly for a long time for a basic reason. The game simply doesn't recognize the ability to reduce casting time below 1.5 seconds, when relying on pet AI. It's a tech limitation that imposes a barrier at 1.5 second cast time. The talent was originally coded to reduce casting to less than 1.5 seconds and the game basically gets confused, which is why the first point worked, but the second point didn't apply the appropriate reduction. At this time, we can't change the mechanics to support a reduction to a 1 second cast time, so the talented reduction was changed from .5 seconds per point, to .25 seconds per point. So, at the least, the second talent point has an effect, rather than doing almost nothing at all. Yes, it is something of a workaround fix, but we're limited in our options to make the talent work as originally designed.

edit - the Imp's casting time is inhibited by particular AI. Player spells or cast times of 1 second are not the issue at hand.

Tseric

#156 - Feb. 28, 2007, 10:36 p.m.

So, no one recalls the specific change that suddenly 'fixed' the cast time of firebolt? You're just really, really sure it was happening, but nothing to go on beyond that? I have searched for changes that may have led to this, but see nothing. Specifics would be useful, rather than just testimony to the fact, because what you are suggesting truly is not supportable with the game's design. Trying to eliminate the possibility of a perception issue, here.

Tseric

#159 - Feb. 28, 2007, 10:54 p.m.

Q u o t e:
However I can say for certain that my imp DID shoot at a 1.0 speed since I measured imp-only DPS at over 500.

While I like this point, this does not confirm the cast time reduction. It could show an increase in damage over the same amount of time and achieve the same numbers. I'm inclined to think this is the case, as damage has been adjusted for the imp much more than the cast time has.