Poster: Sehojan at 9/20/2005 10:23:18 AM PDT
Subject: Death Coil: An Analysis |
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Here is a comparison of instant-cast damage spells between races that don't require a talent investment in order to cast instantly.
Death Coil: Instant cast. 350 mana. 470 damage. 470 recovered. 30 yard range. 10 minute cooldown.
Fire Blast: Instant cast. 340 mana. 431 damage average. 0 recovered. 20 yard range. 8 second cooldown.
Cone of Cold: Instant cast. 555 mana. 350 damage average. 8 second movement reduction. Area of effect. 10 yard ranage. 10 second cooldown.
Earth Shock: Instant cast. 450 mana. 531 damage average. Interrupts spellcasting and stops the school of magic for 2 seconds. 20 yard range. 6 second cooldown.
Frost Shock: Instant cast. 430 mana. 500 damage average. Reduces movement by 50% for 8 seconds. 20 yard range. 6 second cooldown.
Flame Shock: Instant cast. 360 mana. 230 damage immediately, 232 over 12 seconds (DoT doesn't stack). 20 yard range. 6 second cooldown.
Devouring Plague: Instant cast. 985 mana. 904 damage over 24 seconds. 904 damage healed over 24 seconds. 30 yard range. 3 minute cooldown.
Shadow Word Pain: Instant cast. 470 mana. 852 damage over 18 seconds. Limited to Undead. 30 yard range. No cooldown.
Moonfire: Instant cast. 375 mana. 205 damage average, plus 384 damage over 12 seconds (DoT doesn't stack). 30 yard range. No cooldown.
Conclusion
Death Coil is a darn good spell, "widening the gap" between your life and your opponents' life by 940 hit points. That's the most powerful instant-cast, single-target, instant-damage spell in the game (we're not considering talents here).
However, the 10 minute cooldown is well above and beyond any other spell.
Devouring plague, which "widens the gap" twice as well as Death Coil (admittedly over a period of time) has a 3 minute cooldown.
Cone of Cold, which also has an area of effect and "widens the gap" about a third as well as Death Coil, has a 10 second cooldown.
The three Shocks and Fire Blast "widen the gap" about half as well as Death Coil; Fire Blast has an 8-second cooldown, the Shocks have a collective 6.
Shadow Word Pain "widens the gap" almost as well as Death Coil, but over a period of time. It has no cooldown.
Moonfire, when spammed, "widens the gap" about 20-25% as much as Death Coil, but can be spammed continuously.
I know there are other factors affecting a spell's effectiveness; the healing from Death Coil can be a lifesaver, and its range is quite good. However, many of the other spells have bonuses, namely spell interruption or speed reduction.
To calculate a more practical cooldown for Death Coil, let's compare it to Cone of Cold, has the longest cooldown of every other other immediate-damage spells that I've listed. Let us say that a spell with the power of Cone of Cold "should have" a cooldown of 10 seconds.
However, Death Coil "widens the gap" about three times as much as Cone of Cold, at least against a single foe.
Furthermore, let's assume Death Coil's secondary effects are more desirable. We'll say that healing is more useful than AoE, and longer range is more useful than a chill effect. Perhaps each of these factors should add another cooldown to Death Coil.
Let's also say that Death Coil's mana cost, which is a bit over half of Cone of Cold's, is a factor. Add another bit of cooldown to Death Coil.
Finally, let's say that the Mage deserves to be a better nuker because, well, the mage is the main nuking class. Add yet another bit of cooldown to Death Coil's cooldown.
Summing this up... we get:
We get:
Base cooldown: 0 seconds
Extra damage: Death Coil "widens the gap" three times as much. Let's weight extra damage with a factor of 3, getting 3*3*base cooldown = +90 seconds.
Healing: Let's assume healing is better than AoE, and weight that with an extra factor of 2. 2*base cooldown = +20 seconds.
Range: Let's assume range is better than chill, and weight that with an extra factor of 2. 2*base cooldown = +20 seconds.
Mage's Role: Let's assume the mage is the undisputed master of nuking, and should fill this role 10 times better than the warlock. 10* base cooldown = +100 seconds.
Cost: Cone of Cold costs twice as much to cost. Weight that with a factor of 4. 4*base cooldown = +40 seconds.
Total: 4 minutes, 30 seconds.
In my opinion, the numbers I came up with are very biased against the Warlock. First, I based its cooldown on the longest cooldown of the other instant-damage spells. Second, I added the amount healed to the amount damaged to get Death Coil's "effectiveness". Third, I said three times the effectiveness should equal nine times the cooldown. Third, I basically counted the healing again by saying it's twice as desirable as an AoE (which may or may not be true). Fourth, I said that the range is twice as desirable as the Chill effect of Cone of Cold (which also may or may not be true). Fifth, I assumed that the lower mana was worth four times the cooldown. Finally, I said that by virtue of the Mage's role as a nuker, he should have an advantage of ten cooldowns to one.
Taking out two of the more ridiculous assumptions (counting healing twice against Death Coil and saying that the lower mana cost justified increasing its cooldown) brings its cooldown to 3 minutes and 30 seconds, which is perhaps more fair.
But I'd be significantly more satisfied with a 4:30 cooldown. I'd even be happier with a 3:30 cooldown and a soul shard cost (although it'd be nice if the shard was reimbursed if Death Coil delivered the finishing blow). A 3:30 cooldown (or a 3:00 cooldown), which I think is the most balanced, would make me (and warlocks everywhere) overjoyed.
Thoughts?[ post edited by Sehojan ]
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=4960912&p=#post4960912 | | | Poster: Eyonix at 9/20/2005 11:09:30 AM PDT
Subject: Re: Death Coil: An Analysis |
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Thank you for taking the time to post your analysis, Sehojan. We're actually in the process of making improvements to Death Coil, along with a few other nifty Warlock improvements. I will provide more information the second it's finalized and approved.
Friend of Matt the Gnome
| | | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=4960912&p=#post4961553 |
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