#311 Warlock - Malediction increases Hellfire self-damage but not Hellfire damage to enemies

Status: Fixed · Area: Classes & Specs · Warlock

Malediction boosts the damage Hellfire does to the warlock but not to enemies, which is the opposite of what players expect.

Current behavior

The Malediction talent only increases the damage Hellfire deals to the caster. It does not increase the damage Hellfire deals to enemies. Tested at every rank from 0/5 to 5/5: - 0/5 Malediction: Hellfire deals 84–85 damage per tick to enemies and 84–85 to the caster. - 5/5 Malediction: Hellfire deals 84–85 damage per tick to enemies (unchanged) and 88–89 to the caster. Critical self-damage ticks go up the same way (127 at 0/5, 133 at 5/5). Critical ticks on enemies stay the same (126–127). The in-game tooltip matches this. At 5/5 Malediction, Hellfire reads: "causing 88 Fire damage to herself and 84 Fire damage to all nearby enemies every 1 sec."

Expected behavior

Going by the spell data, Malediction is technically working as implemented. Hellfire's self-damage is the aura's own Periodic Damage effect (Effect #2, 83 every 1 sec), which Malediction modifies. Enemy damage comes from a separate triggered spell, "Hellfire Effect" (Effect #1, Periodically trigger spell), which Malediction doesn't affect. From the player's side, though, this is counter-intuitive. Nothing in the game tells you that Hellfire's self-damage counts as periodic damage while its damage to enemies doesn't. Players will reasonably expect a damage talent to increase the damage Hellfire deals to enemies. Instead, investing in Malediction makes Hellfire strictly worse: it hurts the caster more and deals no extra damage to enemies. Malediction should apply to both parts of Hellfire or to neither: - Both: Malediction also applies to Hellfire Effect, so the damage to enemies goes up alongside the self-damage. - Neither: Malediction does not apply to Hellfire's self-damage, so the talent no longer makes the spell worse for the caster.

How to reproduce

1. Log in to a Warlock with Hellfire and 0/5 Malediction.
2. Channel Hellfire on a group of enemies and record the damage per tick to enemies and to yourself.
3. Put points into Malediction, one rank at a time up to 5/5, and repeat step 2 at each rank.
4. Observe: self-damage per tick goes up with each rank, but damage to enemies stays the same at 84–85.
5. Check the Hellfire tooltip at each rank: only the self-damage number changes.