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Q u o t e:
Soul Shard: This item now has a maximum count of 32 in inventory.

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Taken from updated PTR patchnotes.

I can't interpret this properly n_n

Does this mean we can have a maximum of 32 shards at all times in our inventory, or does it mean Shards stack to a maximum of 32?

Gah >_>

If it's the former, that's a massive nerf to the Warlock class. Why not remove shards alltogether?

[edit] Nevermind, I think I figured it out (way too early in the morning for this n_n). So we won't be able to have more than 32 shards, yay.

It'd make sense to increase the limit to 100 or 200 shards at a maximum and then have the shards stack up to 10 and reduce the amount of shard stacks a soulbag can take down to that maximum (e.g 20 stacks).

This is a bandaid fix until they can get the proper new soul shard system out (which won't be ready for 3.1)

combine the 32 shard limit with the new drain soul which will give you loads of shards during casting and it makes a lot of sense.

No shard limit means constant bag emptying, since after all, not everyone plays with macros or addons. Some people do actually play Warlocks with standard wow.

I've been wondering for years when something like this would come into effect, I always found it silly that the warlock class required an addon to manage reagents.

I'm doing perfectly fine without any add-on handling my shards. I bring way more than 32 shards to wipe nights at new bosses. Using Drain Soul on new bosses makes my dmg lower which means more likely a useless wipe since 1 or more locks can't do proper damage during encounter as they're acquiring reagents. This will be especially true on 10mans where single dps'er doing something else than proper dps hurts the overall raid damage much harder.

PvP with destro, have fun with 32 shards. For the couple of minutes until you're out of shards.

In short, this change sucks big time. Atleast make it optional and let those who need to collect proper amount of shards.

personally i dont see the need to take more than 20 now that we have a summoning stone for the slakers, and even if i do feel like i need more there are a few rams on the way in :)

-.- again a bandaid fix... and a crappy one at it.. again...

but could have seen it happen... gg I always run around with "at least" 55 shards.. just so "I don't have to" drain. Now they are nerfing affli dps, so using drain soul will nerf our dps. Great luving blizz, good listening to your community!

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Q u o t e:

combine the 32 shard limit with the new drain soul which will give you loads of shards during casting and it makes a lot of sense.

No shard limit means constant bag emptying, since after all, not everyone plays with macros or addons. Some people do actually play Warlocks with standard wow.

I've been wondering for years when something like this would come into effect, I always found it silly that the warlock class required an addon to manage reagents.

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Actually it only makes sense for Affliction. See, it's a bandaid fix for a bandaid fix.

The story is like this. Make shards farming easier by letting Drain Soul generate them more. Oops, won't warlocks who use Drain Soul as part of their rotation suddenly be drowning in shards? Oh yeah; okay, lets limit the shards to 32. We currently await some bright spark at Blizzard to realise that only Affliction warlocks use Drain Soul - Demonology and Destruction don't (and to pile on the irony, both specs are more shard-hungry that Affliction). I wonder if they'll bother to make another bandaid to cover the problem that Demo/Destro locks will face the prospect of a DPS loss because they have to Drain Soul a boss to restock on shards on a wipe night, as they are now unable to bring three bags on them to the raid? Used to do that in TBC...

Actually in a raid environment shard management wasn't a problem. If you filled your bags, you din;t get any more shards, and when you won some loot, the raidleader would tell you "your bags are full dummy" and you threw one away.

gg... another brilliant idea of bliz (NOT!)

Ones again they prove that they can only think of one specc at a time, what about us SS dependent speccs like Dest or Demon...?
Oh noes, affl will suffer, they will have to delete SS, let's nerf it so Dest and Demon speccs can't get enough of them *sigh*

No offense to you affl locks :)

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Q u o t e:
To clarify this change, the shards do not stack, and you're limited to having 32 (to avoid overspill to your main inventory from the 32 slot Soul Shard bag).

The new mechanic for Drain Soul will be throwing you shards left and right, enough so that you should never be empty sharded.

Of course some of you guys will have carried more than 32 shards in the past and could well see it as a nerf, but with the shards simply flying in with this change, such a cap will be more than sufficient.

This is, as you say, a band aid fix. As ever, any change we make will generate positive feedback from some people, and negative from others. This is step one in the long walk to having our ultimate plans on Soul Shards put into place.

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Using Drain Soul as Destro or Demo, is lowering our dps. By lowering our dps, we can wipe raid... It's not band aid fix, is band aid nerf.

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Q u o t e:
To clarify this change, the shards do not stack, and you're limited to having 32 (to avoid overspill to your main inventory from the 32 slot Soul Shard bag).

The new mechanic for Drain Soul will be throwing you shards left and right, enough so that you should never be empty sharded.

Of course some of you guys will have carried more than 32 shards in the past and could well see it as a nerf, but with the shards simply flying in with this change, such a cap will be more than sufficient.

This is, as you say, a band aid fix. As ever, any change we make will generate positive feedback from some people, and negative from others. This is step one in the long walk to having our ultimate plans on Soul Shards put into place.

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Thanks for the clarification, Ancilorn.
A small question.
Why can't they stack? Farming is the smaller part of the problem but shards eating up a bagslot is a major annoyance. With the recent changes, the shard system is almost redundant. It should stay because it's a nice lock niche but making them stack would be a welcomed change.

yes, but we don't use drain soul in our rotations if we're destro/demo, and especially not given the changes coming in 3.1. Are you considering anything helping those not specced that way?

Step 2.Allow 5 soulshard bags to be equipped

Step 3.Pat ourselves on the back.

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Q u o t e:
To clarify this change, the shards do not stack, and you're limited to having 32 (to avoid overspill to your main inventory from the 32 slot Soul Shard bag).

The new mechanic for Drain Soul will be throwing you shards left and right, enough so that you should never be empty sharded.

Of course some of you guys will have carried more than 32 shards in the past and could well see it as a nerf, but with the shards simply flying in with this change, such a cap will be more than sufficient.

This is, as you say, a band aid fix. As ever, any change we make will generate positive feedback from some people, and negative from others. This is step one in the long walk to having our ultimate plans on Soul Shards put into place.

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Drain soul is not a DPS spell unless we're specced affliction and the target is below 25%, this really requires a little extra thought- because on progression nights we might very well not see mobs below 35% for a pretty long time- and as things are looking right now we won't be affliction either..

The real, and IMHO only, issue with the cap on shards is destro pvp. You're losing shards at the going rate of 4 a minute, more if you have to resummon a pet or get a soulfire window. There is no way you can do arenas back to back without going to farm (or having a bank full of shards) and in extreme fights you risk running out entirely.

In a patch that adjusts pvp for destro, it's disheartening that you fail to comment on this.

As to pve whiners, If the shards truly are flying in you can spend a few seconds on an obvious wipe to restock (but doing so in arenas is a death warrant).


Working solutions:

Make the cap optional
Give us a spell that mimics the kill one shard macro
Give us a spell that mimics the kill shards till you get x macro
Don't make the cap at all
Remove the shard cost from arenas
Remove the shard cost from shadowburn & soulfire

Ty.

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Q u o t e:


Drain soul is not a DPS spell unless we're specced affliction and the target is below 25%, this really requires a little extra thought- because on progression nights we might very well not see mobs below 35% for a pretty long time- and as things are looking right now we won't be affliction either..

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Well, just wipe once (maybe locks + tank + a few healer) and drain the boss from the start. Stupid sollution but should work.

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Q u o t e:
As ever, any change we make will generate positive feedback from some people, and negative from others.

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Ye. But 90% negative feedback and 10% positive feedback means something is wrong, no?

if you ignore your dps on trash, than ss farming during raids should not be a problem. especially since drainsoul will grant more shards next patch. however, I cannot see a good reason to set a maximum of 32 to shards. why would it be a problem to run around with 2 soulbags and farm up to 64? its one thing to have a ss system, but why the restriction. I cant see it happening to hunter ammo tbh, and as a soulfire spammer im using shards every boss fight.

What raid is going to let you wipe them just to farm some shards?Just use drain soul on packs you would normally AoE and fill up there.Ok,so you lose some damage but thats NP for Blizz.

The "small" problem i see is the chat spamm by this change.
It may be a way to disable shard being shown in chat but so far i cba to look for it.
in 3.1...

xxxxxxx creates soulshard
xxxxxxx creates soulshard
xxxxxxx creates soulshard
xxxxxxx creates soulshard
xxxxxxx creates soulshard
xxxxxxx creates soulshard
yyyyyyy creates soulshard
xxxxxxx creates soulshard
yyyyyyy creates soulshard
yyyyyyy creates soulshard
yyyyyyy creates soulshard
zzzzzzz creates soulshard
.....

locks may have a problem there

I don't think PvE have any problems with soul shards really

The problems lies in PvP, especially for destruction were we need to use a lot Shadowburn, soulfire, healthstones, (pets), etc

And we don't want to go out as often to farm the shards. we want to PvP and we can't just stand on a enemy player and use drain soul to kill him it wont just work.

This is a buff for PvE mostly
But for PvP we want to stay in PvP to continue without any need to go grind more soul shards