MoP Shadow Priest vs Affliction Warlock

[creamie123]

Here are the things which both classes got in comparison to each other. As you can see, Affliction Warlocks seem to have been very buffed in contrast to Shadow Priests.

The Short:


1) Warlocks get much more versatility.
2) Warlocks get much more offense.
3) Warlocks get much more defense.
4) And more C.C + Regeneration.
5) And also more life drains.
6) And pets + guardians ...
7) And better AoE and multi-dotting.


Let us not go into the other insane buffs that Warlocks got for other specs, but for all purposes, we are only comparing Affliction Warlocks vs Shadow Priests, which are both mostly equal in Cataclysm. There is little love for us Shadow Priests in MoP ._.

Life Drains:


Shadow Priest (without popping out of Shadowform to heal, only using all of our life drain spells, since if you pop out of SF to self-heal, you have already almost lost the battle by wasting 6-7 seconds to heal and pop back in to reapply DoTs, while the Warlock grinds at us):
1) Use Desperate Prayer [2 min CD], 30% HP heal.
2) Glyphed Vampiric Embrace [3 min CD], 100% life drain for 15 secs.
3) Empowered Glyphed Devouring Plague, 33% heal for 6 secs.
Total heals = 30% HP heal + 100% of the target's HP if the target is destroyed within 15 secs = ~ 130% HP heal
Can only be done every 3 mins with VE ready.
Without VE, we only get small heals from DP every fight
However, most people will probably NOT get Desperate Prayer over the new Stealth talent, making our heals only ~100% of our HP

OR


VS

Affliction Warlock
1) Soul Burn: Drain Life [45 sec CD] at 5.5% total HP per tick for 6 ticks.
2) Normal Drain Life [spammable] at 2.2% total HP per tick. (Not Soul Harvest since Dark Regeneration is mutually exclusive of SH)
3) Glyphed Healthstone [1 min CD], 44% HP heal over 12 secs.
4) Dark Regeneration [3 min CD], 33% HP heal over 12 secs. Also increases all self-healing by 25% for 12 secs.
5) Cauterize Master (Imp spell), 13.2% HP heal over 12 secs.
6) Mortal Coil [45 sec CD], 16.5% total HP instant heal.
7) Dark Soul: Misery (1 min CD), 30% spell haste for drain life.
Total heals = ~127% HP heal + ~ 60% from 12 secs from drain life = ~187% HP heal (higher due to the 25% from dark regen)
Can be done every 3 mins with DR ready
Even without DR ready, the rest of spells have a CD that is so low that a Warlock can expect to spam them almost every fight and drain around ~107.3% of his HP.
If the Warlock takes Soul Harvest over Dark Regeneration, to be honest, over 15 seconds, he can use 1 Soul Burned SH + normal SH to get around 100% HP heal, to a total of ~160% HP heal for almost every fight while we must wait 3 mins for an inferior HP regen

Damage Mitigation, Spell Absorption, Spell Reflect and Pet Damage:


Shadow Priest:
1) Summons a Shadowfiend to attack the warlock [4 min CD or less]
2) Uses Dispersion [2 min CD]: 90% less dmg taken for 6 secs but cannot attack, 36% HP heal. We note that the reduced dmg does not reduce the 2.2% HP restoration on drain life, only mitigates the dmg component.
3) 15% dmg mitigation from SF.
4) Power Word: Shield

VS

Affliction Warlock:
1) Uses Grimoire of Supremacy to summon an additional pet to grind on the Priest (both already out-damages our shadowfiend) [1 min CD]
2) Instant casts an Infernal or Doomguard [10 min CD]
3) Demonic Resolve [3 min CD]: 50% less dmg taken for 12 secs, and CAN attack.
4) Specializes in Soul Link (20% dmg mitigation) OR Sacrificial Pact (1 min CD) for a 75000+ HP shield
5) Twilight Ward which scales 300% with spell damage
6) Archimonde's Revenge: reflects 30% of all damage back to the Priest for 10 secs [short CD, can't remember]
7) Glyph to summon 5 fiery Imps to attack 5 times each every 1 minute
8) If the Warlock takes Unbound Will over Blood Fear, he will have a free 1 min CD spell that breaks all CCs, and dispels all DoTs from him instantly, making us waste another 5 secs trying to reapply DoTs.

Even with this setup, the Warlock has too much damage mitigation and absorption versus a priest (and also spell reflect).
For (4), if the Warlock takes Demonic Embrace over the other 2 talents, it is 10 sec of absolute spell immunity, and I doubt that it is dispellable. This plus another 10 secs of 50% damage = 20 seconds of near invincibility for the Warlock.

Crowd Control and Instant Casts:

Shadow Priest:
1) Uses Silence [45 sec CD] for 5 secs silence
2) Uses Psychic Horror to horrify for 3 secs [45 sec CD]
3) Psychic Scream or Psyfiend for instant fear.
4) Fear Ward to nullify Warlock Fears (not horrors or stuns)
5) SW:P and SW spam for instant damage


VS

Affliction Warlock:
1) Uses Felhunter's Spell Lock to silence for 3 secs, or counterspell for 6 seconds. Can be cast independently [20 sec CD] and due to short CD, may be used twice in combat. Also, a good Warlock will always place his pet far away to avoid Psychic Scream, and prepare for a well-timed spell-lock for 6 secs.
OR even worse still, the Warlock pulls out a Succubus, with an instant stun/interrupt (Whiplash) every 24 secs, and has Seduction to gain a headstart of the battle.
2) As mentioned earlier, Mortal Coil's 3 sec horror [45 sec CD]
3) Blood Fear - instant horror for 8 secs [5 sec CD] at range
4) Curse of Enfeeblement: -25% caste speed on target [no CD]
5) Soul Burn: Soul Swap [45 sec CD]: Applies all 3 DoTs instantly on Priest
6) Fel Flame: Instantly refreshes all DoTs and extends duration by 50%, no CD, also does more dmg than our instant casts and is instant.
7) Demonic Circle: Teleport
8) Curse of Exhaustion: A good warlock will use this first to keep away from psychic scream to cast important spells like Haunt.

This one is pretty even in terms of CC, but the Warlock will always get off his horror effect first because Blood Fear has a further range, and lasts much longer than our horrors. However, he will also always get to apply his DoTs first and get the initial advantage, or blink away with teleport

Dispels:

No doubt, this will make a very huge difference. However, from playtesting, it seems like many of the new Warlock buffs cannot be dispelled. It is not yet known. However, a good warlock will always keep lesser buffs such as Unending breath and Detect Invisibility, on top of Twilight Ward and Dark Intent up. Since dispel only randomly dispels 1 beneficial effect, to dispel any of these 4 lesser abilities would waste around 6 seconds of GCD time. Furthermore, it may end up in vain because what was supposed to be dispelled might not even be dispellable.

For the Warlock's felhunter, even though it has a 8 sec CD dispel, we priests do not have 'lesser' buffs such as Warlocks, and without a doubt, the Warlock will dispel one out of 4 of a Priest's important buffs: PW:S, Fortitude, Innerfire and Fear Ward from the start, and this is off the Warlock's GCD.

Single Target Damage Debuffers and Enhancers:

Shadow Priest:
1) +20% Shadow Damage from Shadowform
2) Crappy Shadow Orb system that does not buff damage directly
3) 15% proc chance for Mind Flay to give an instant cast Mind Blast
4) Power Infusion for a 20% haste and -20% mana cast.

VS

Affliction Warlock:
1) Potent Afflictions Mastery allows an additional 300% of Spell damage to scale with all 3 DoTs
2) +40% Shadow Damage for 8 seconds from Haunt
3) +8% Spell damage from Curse of Elements
4) 10% proc chance for Nightfall to give 1 soul shard for Soul Burn (and as I type this, I just realized that Soul Burn has no CD except for instant summons)
5) Malefic Grasp (the Mind Flay equivalent for Affliction Warlocks) that causes all DoTs to tick 100% faster (which in essence, causes all DoTs to do 200% damage)
6) Dark Soul: Misery for a 30% haste on a shorter CD.

There is little contest between Affliction Warlocks and Shadow Priests. The only key difference lies in our ability to heal.


Long Term Durability:

Sure, you can say a Shadow Priest can drop out of SF to heal and outlast the Warlock, and using Dispersion and Shadowfiend to regenerate around 60% of our total mana (maybe 80% with the empowered Shadowfiend talent), but so can the Warlock. Glyph of Dark Regeneration replaces the Warlock's Life Tap and grants him a +625% mana regen that scales with more haste, with no cooldown, while our shadowfiend has a 4 min CD.

[TyloBedo]

A lot of these you're comparing apples to oranges.

Just going to point this out too but if haunt grants 40% increased dot damage and and the filler causing dots to tick 100% faster means affliction dots will hit for good single target damage but when multi dotting they're going to hit like complete wet noodles.

[creamie123]

A lot of these you're comparing apples to oranges.

Just going to point this out too but if haunt grants 40% increased dot damage and and the filler causing dots to tick 100% faster means affliction dots will hit for good single target damage but when multi dotting they're going to hit like complete wet noodles.

We Shadow Priests can only sustain Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch on multiple PvP targets, but not Devouring Plague, which needs consistent Shadow Orbs to unleash. Our maximum number of Shadow Apparitions have been reduced to 4 instead of 15.

While Affliction Warlocks can cast all 3 of their DoTs: Unstable Affliction, Corruption and Curse of Agony (which can be glyphed to become more lethal) without using up soul shards (on the contrary, Nightfall from Corruption gives them soul shards to spam Haunt). They can also use Seed of Corruption to mass-trigger Corruption on all targets without using up too much GCD time.

As for other area of effect spells, their Soul Harvest + Shadowfury + baseline Rain of Fire outclasses our own.

As for self-healing, Soul harvest on 6 targets >>> 15% heals from Vampiric Embrace on 6 targets from multi-dotting since theirs is instant, while ours need time to charge up.

[Inactivity]

Here are the things which both classes got in comparison to each other. As you can see, Affliction Warlocks seem to have been very buffed in contrast to Shadow Priests.

1) A 3 min CD baseline spell that reduces all damage by 50% for 12 seconds.
2) Buffed up Healthstones with 3 charges on a minute cooldown that heal 22% (with Fel Armor) of their HP instantly VS Desperate Prayer, which heals for 30% HP but eats up global CD and mana.
3) The ability to choose between 3 very powerful regenerative abilities, one of which is a 3 min CD spell that causes 50% of the Warlock's HP to be healed over 12 seconds VS Nothing similar for us
4) The ability to choose between 3 very powerful self-defense abilities, one of which sacrifices half the pet's HP for a 200% HP shield, which at level 90, might equate to a 75000+ HP shield for 10 seconds + A Twilight Shield that might equate to around 15000HP of absorption VS our 20000+ HP Bubbles.
5) A crazy Soul Harvest spell that heals the warlock for 4.4% HP per tick (2.2% for normal drain life, which already is around 2000+ HP/sec or 4000+ for Soul Harvest OR 10000+HP per sec with Soul Burn) VS our Vampiric Embrace which heals only 15% of our damage + Devouring Plague which has been nerfed a bit
6) A new Affliction filler that causes all DoTs to tick 100% faster VS our Mind Flay which has a 15% chance for an instant cast Mind Blast
7) A new Affliction debuff (Haunt) that causes all DoTs and channelled spells to deal 40% more dmg for 8 seconds. Pretty deadly when used with the new Affliction filler (Malefic Grasp).
8) A +50% duration DoT refresher
9) A Fel Flame spell which resets all DoTs
10) A Soul burn + Soul Swap spell which places all 3 DoTs instantly and deals some instant damage
11) Empowered Pets + the ability to summon Demons + Possibly a 2nd pet VS our Shadowfiend
12) An instant cast horror (Blood Fear) + Shadowfury instant stun + normal Fear or Seduction VS one out of 3 of our talented CC abilities
13) A Raid-wide 5% spell damage Dark Intent Buff
14) Dark Soul, which hastens a Warlock's periodic and channelled spell by 30% every minute.
15) A Curse of Enfeeblement spell which reduces physical damage dealt and spell casting speed by 25%.
16) A spell that reflects 30% of any taken damage back to the caster for 12 seconds.
17) Nightfall procs, which grant an instant cast spell, VS our Mind Spikes, which reduce the CD of Mind Blast by 50% per cast.
18) A new combat resurrection Soul Stone spell
19) A passive, non-dispellable Fel Armor that grants HP, armor + self-heal VS our dispellable Fortitude and Inner Fire spells
20) A pet Cauterize Wound ability that heals that Warlock for 12% HP over several seconds
21) 2% passive HP Regen per second outside of battles

I'm not sure if you are talking strictly PvE, PvP, or soloing, but:

1) You're comparing apples and orange when it comes to buffs. Dark Intent is our raid buff (dispellable) as well as Healthstones (you can use them too). That's in contrast to your dispellable Fortitude buff, and non-dispellable 5% spell haste buff, etc.

2) Soulstone has always been combat rez since 4.1. We don't have a regular rez (for utility) unlike priests.

3) Our 2% passive HP regen outside battles isn't usable in arena. And we would kill to have, oh, actual heals. It's merely so we don't have to rely on mage food/etc. or that crap, just like you guys have Renew and heals (that are mainly for between combat, but unlike us, can be actually used in combat if needed).

4) We're also losing our passive Soul Link 20-25% health reduction, and the new defensive talents we get are mostly weaker than that (albeit we also have the 50% DR 3 min CD, which is quite strong).

5) Pet Cauterize Wound requires a pet and deals minor damage to begin with; considering in PvP most dangerous damage for warlocks is burst, that might not be a good thing. This also means we don't get succubus or felhunter at the same time, so it's a tradeoff.

6) Not going to say outright which is better or worse, but it would help if a) you didn't list obvious things such as buffs/healthstones which just makes it looks like you are trying to dig for reasons to complain, or b) you explained if you were talking PvE, PvP, or soloing.

[HawynLegend]

but it would help if a) you didn't list obvious things such as buffs/healthstones which just makes it looks like you are trying to dig for reasons to complain,

WHAT?! You mean people actually do that just to start an argument?!

OT: People will do anything to get opinions on what they think is right. Most of the spells he listed are warlocks and even some of his information is wrong.

Desperate Prayer, which heals for 30% HP but eats up global CD and mana.

From what i know that's happening on beta and live. DP does NOT trigger a GCD or cost mana. (Unless you were somehow referring to it dropping shadowform and having to recast it.)

Vampiric Embrace which heals only 15% of our damage

VE is changed to a 15 second buff that heals for 50% of the damage done from dots. Multi-Dot and VE can easily outheal Soul Harvest.

Empowered Pets + the ability to summon Demons + Possibly a 2nd pet VS our Shadowfiend
2% passive HP Regen per second outside of battles

Depending on how you look at these. PvE/leveling/Solo, these are irrelevant since warlocks have always been able to control pets, and both classes can easily heal while killing.

It seems like you know more about warlocks than priests.

[muto]

Shadow Priest will hit harder to make up for all of that like they already do, plus a lot of that Warlock stuff you listed isn't that great and should be used situationally or sparingly.

They will be balanced don't worry.

[creamie123]

WHAT?! You mean people actually do that just to start an argument?!

OT: People will do anything to get opinions on what they think is right. Most of the spells he listed are warlocks and even some of his information is wrong.

From what i know that's happening on beta and live. DP does NOT trigger a GCD or cost mana. (Unless you were somehow referring to it dropping shadowform and having to recast it.)

VE is changed to a 15 second buff that heals for 50% of the damage done from dots. Multi-Dot and VE can easily outheal Soul Harvest.


Depending on how you look at these. PvE/leveling/Solo, these are irrelevant since warlocks have always been able to control pets, and both classes can easily heal while killing.

It seems like you know more about warlocks than priests.

Yes, VE is powerful ... but on a 3 minute cooldown. I would like to see our class try to outheal an Affliction Warlock on the following terms:
Without interruption
Without popping out of SF

Shadow Priest (without popping out of Shadowform to heal, only using all of our life drain spells, since if you pop out of SF to self-heal, you have already almost lost the battle by wasting 6-7 seconds to heal and pop back in to reapply DoTs, while the Warlock grinds at us):
1) Use Desperate Prayer [2 min CD], 30% HP heal.
2) Vampiric Embrace [3 min CD], 50% life drain for 15 secs.
3) Empowered Glyphed Devouring Plague, 33% heal for 6 secs.
Total heals = 30% HP heal + 50% of the target's HP if the target is destroyed within 15 secs = ~ 80% HP heal
Can only be done every 3 mins with VE ready
Without VE, we only get small heals from DP every fight

VS

Affliction Warlock
1) Soul Burn: Drain Life [45 sec CD] at 5.5% total HP per tick for 5 ticks.
2) Normal Drain Life [spammable] at 2.2% total HP per tick. (Not Soul Harvest since Dark Regeneration is mutually exclusive of SH)
3) Healthstone [1 min CD], 22% HP heal.
4) Dark Regeneration [3 min CD], 55% HP heal over 12 secs.
5) Cauterize Master (Imp spell), 13.2% HP heal over 12 secs.
6) Mortal Coil [45 sec CD], 16.5% total HP instant heal.
7) Dark Soul: Misery (1 min CD), 30% spell haste for drain life.
Total heals = 96.3% HP heal + ~ 60% from 10 secs from drain life = ~155% HP heal
Can be done every 3 mins with DR ready
Even without DR ready, the rest of spells have a CD that is so low that a Warlock can expect to spam them almost every fight and drain around ~90% of his HP.

Now let's add a few more things to spice things up. This time:

Shadow Priest:
1) Summons a Shadowfiend to attack the warlock [4 min CD or less]
2) Uses Dispersion [2 min CD]: 90% less dmg taken for 6 secs but cannot attack, 36% HP heal. We note that the reduced dmg does not reduce the 2.2% HP restoration on drain life, only mitigates the dmg component.
3) 15% dmg mitigation from SF.
4) Power Word: Shield

VS

Affliction Warlock:
1) Uses Grimoire of Supremacy to summon an additional pet to grind on the Priest (both already out-damages our shadowfiend) [1 min CD]
2) Instant casts an Infernal or Doomguard [10 min CD]
3) Demonic Resolve [3 min CD]: 50% less dmg taken for 12 secs, and CAN attack.
4) Specializes in Soul Link (20% dmg mitigation) OR Sacrificial Pact (1 min CD) for a 75000+ HP shield
5) Twilight Ward which scales 300% with spell damage
6) Archimonde's Revenge: reflects 30% of all damage back to the Priest for 10 secs [short CD, can't remember]

Even with this setup, the Warlock has too much damage mitigation and absorption versus a priest (and also spell reflect)

Now let's make things even harder:

Shadow Priest:
1) Uses Silence [45 sec CD] for 5 secs silence
2) Uses Psychic Horror to horrify for 3 secs [45 sec CD]
3) Psychic Scream or Psyfiend for instant fear.
4) Fear Ward to nullify Warlock Fears (not horrors or stuns)
5) SW:P and SW spam for instant damage

VS

Affliction Warlock:
1) Uses Felhunter's Spell Lock to silence for 3 secs, or counterspell for 6 seconds. Can be cast independently [20 sec CD] and due to short CD, may be used twice in combat
2) As mentioned earlier, Mortal Coil's 3 sec horror [45 sec CD]
3) Blood Fear - instant horror for 8 secs [5 sec CD] at range
4) Curse of Enfeeblement: -25% caste speed on target [no CD]
5) Soul Burn: Soul Swap [45 sec CD]: Applies all 3 DoTs instantly on Priest
6) Fel Flame: Instantly refreshes all DoTs and extends duration by 50%, no CD, also does more dmg than our instant casts and is instant.
7) Demonic Circle: Teleport

This one is pretty even in terms of CC, but the Warlock will always get off his horror effect first because Blood Fear has a further range, and lasts much longer than our horrors. However, he will also always get to apply his DoTs first and get the initial advantage, or blink away with teleport

[Deleted]

I dont think aoe wise Affliction warlock will be able to compete with us, if mind sear is still the same at MoP. But I really wished our mastery was the same as affliction, a passive shadow damage boost would be the best. I really hate this crappy mastery of ours...(on beta) we already have enough rng through orb proccing, why do our direct damage output should be rng too?;s

[Deleted]

I would like to see our class try to outheal an Affliction Warlock on the following terms:
Without interruption
Without popping out of SF

[

With the glyph of dark binding spriests can pom and renew without dropping SF. DP doesn't drop form. PWS doesn't drop form. pom, renew and pws can also be cast on your arena partners, giving spriests more versatility than straight up self-healing. You reckon a affliction lock outheals a spriest with all three team members shielded, renewed and pom bouncing between them? Really?

Unless you're trying to argue that having to use a couple of GCD's to shield and heal yourself would make spriests weaker (it doesn't - it would be OP to have the benefits of PWS/renew/pom without having to cast the spells) you appear not to have an argument.

[Skandulous]

i think hes talking about pvp guys which a good warlock would destroy a good shadow priest

[creamie123]

i think hes talking about pvp guys which a good warlock would destroy a good shadow priest

Ya that's precisely what I was referring to. I'm mainly discussing a comparison between the 2 classes in absolute terms, and also in terms of 1 vs 1 PvP, not in terms of other things such as healing or arenas.

My Shadow Priest was my first character, until I rerolled over to a Warlock in TBC, only to go back to being a SP again in Wotlk, then to alternate between the 2 in Cataclysm. However, I am still a Shadow Priest at heart, instead of a Warlock.

I have dueled the most skilled Warlocks and Shadow Priests on my server on both my characters and know most of the strategies to handle both classes (Heck, I even dueled Beckon and tied 50/50 on my Warlock). Based on experience though, for 1 v 1 PvP, I have drawn the following conclusions:

In Vanilla WoW and TBC: An absolutely skilled and geared Shadow Priest will tie with a similarly skilled and geared Demo Warlock.

In Wotlk: A SP will destroy a destruction Warlock, but tie with Affliction.

In Cataclysm: An Affliction Warlock will most probably destroy a SP, but with great effort and duration.

In MoP Pandaria: An absolutely skilled Affliction Warlock will wipe out a skilled SP, but the duel will last very long.

[Alenoria]

lol.... you guys know that spriests can go stealth? every 30 seconds... and every 30 seconds they can fade and be unable to be hit by ranged for 3 seconds? plus the fear pet will constantly cast fears while the shadow priest is dpsing......... spriests have a disarm, silence, and WHEN your pet dies you'll be easy to take care of

[creamie123]

lol.... you guys know that spriests can go stealth? every 30 seconds... and every 30 seconds they can fade and be unable to be hit by ranged for 3 seconds? plus the fear pet will constantly cast fears while the shadow priest is dpsing......... spriests have a disarm, silence, and WHEN your pet dies you'll be easy to take care of

Unfortunately, you sacrifice Psychic Scream and other abilities if you take up that Fear pet. Since it's on a 1 min CD, a smart Warlock will cast Curse of exhaustion on you and get to safe distance using Demonic Circle: Teleport.

And there is also the issue that all warlocks will have the ability to instantly summon their pets every 60 seconds in MoP (it is also the case in Cataclysm, albeit with a longer CD).

I have dueled Warlocks by trying to take down the pet first. It works only against novice players who do not know how to micro-manage their pets. The good ones will take that to their advantage.

[Alenoria]

Unfortunately, you sacrifice Psychic Scream and other abilities if you take up that Fear pet. Since it's on a 1 min CD, a smart Warlock will cast Curse of exhaustion on you and get to safe distance using Demonic Circle: Teleport.

And there is also the issue that all warlocks will have the ability to instantly summon their pets every 60 seconds in MoP (it is also the case in Cataclysm, albeit with a longer CD).


I have dueled Warlocks by trying to take down the pet first. It works only against novice players who do not know how to micro-manage their pets. The good ones will take that to their advantage.

you don't loose your aoe fear if you pick up the fear pet... they do not share cd's....

[creamie123]

you don't loose your aoe fear if you pick up the fear pet... they do not share cd's....

From the last time I checked on beta servers, yes we do.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/mis...t-calculator#X!

[Ananan]

The official calculator is quite outdated. Use wowhead - link below.

http://mop.wowhead.com/mists-of-pand...t-calculator#p

[creamie123]

I just logged in again into Beta to test. Apparently the new fade and stealth abilities aren't as good as one might think if the Warlock, or if any opponent is smart.

Fade is only moderately helpful, but when 3 DoTs and 2 Warlock pets are already on you, it won't matter much since it cannot dispel them or block melee attacks.

Stealth is good only at the start of battles since DoTs will immediately reveal you the moment it has been cast on you. A smart Warlock will simply Soul Burn: Soul Swap on us with 3 DoTs right at the start to prevent us from stealthing, and even if we do manage to stealth first, there is a very easy counter: run or use demonic circle: teleport for 6 seconds until the stealth advantage is over. Another disadvantage of stealth is that you cannot pick up desperate prayer alongside Stealth. No instant 30% HP heal, it's either this or that.

Psyfiend isn't as good as one things. Shared diminishing returns with your other CCs. It stays put and can be very easily avoided. It's only good for gaining a tactical advantage at 1 location, but the problem is, the enemy always moves. The main thing about Psyfiend is that it helps to counter rogues.

[Darth-Piekus]

Allow me to disagree with your opinion regarding who would win in a battle between a Shadowpriest and a Affliction Warlock. You forgot one important spell that could easily scale the tip to the shadowpriest against any class that comes in our way. Void Shift. When you are at 20% life or less you can pop up the Shadowfiend use the Void Shift on it and you are healed 100% and the fiend will heal itself full at the next second. Affliciton Warlock problem solved.

[Andyclan]

Ya that's precisely what I was referring to. I'm mainly discussing a comparison between the 2 classes in absolute terms, and also in terms of 1 vs 1 PvP, not in terms of other things such as healing or arenas.

My Shadow Priest was my first character, until I rerolled over to a Warlock in TBC, only to go back to being a SP again in Wotlk, then to alternate between the 2 in Cataclysm. However, I am still a Shadow Priest at heart, instead of a Warlock.

I have dueled the most skilled Warlocks and Shadow Priests on my server on both my characters and know most of the strategies to handle both classes (Heck, I even dueled Beckon and tied 50/50 on my Warlock). Based on experience though, for 1 v 1 PvP, I have drawn the following conclusions:

In Vanilla WoW and TBC: An absolutely skilled and geared Shadow Priest will tie with a similarly skilled and geared Demo Warlock.

In Wotlk: A SP will destroy a destruction Warlock, but tie with Affliction.

In Cataclysm: An Affliction Warlock will most probably destroy a SP, but with great effort and duration.

In MoP Pandaria: An absolutely skilled Affliction Warlock will wipe out a skilled SP, but the duel will last very long.

The game is not balanced around 1v1, how many times to we have to TELL YOU PEOPLE THIS! jesus christ man!

[creamie123]

Allow me to disagree with your opinion regarding who would win in a battle between a Shadowpriest and a Affliction Warlock. You forgot one important spell that could easily scale the tip to the shadowpriest against any class that comes in our way. Void Shift. When you are at 20% life or less you can pop up the Shadowfiend use the Void Shift on it and you are healed 100% and the fiend will heal itself full at the next second. Affliciton Warlock problem solved.

I'm pretty sure they will nerf that, with 100% certainty, and that it will become usable only on players.

It is easy for a smart warlock to bypass that too. All he has to do is cast glyphed Curse of Exhaustion (50% slow, which cannot be dispelled by a priest, and has a very short CD) on me, blink out, and run away while allowing his Soul Harvest and Glyph of Dark Regeneration to fully regenerate his HP and mana, and then initiate the battle once more. To be honest, at level 90, if he has Kil'jaden's Cunning (can cast while moving), it will be even more irritating that he can just kite me while my mind flay cannot get to him. He can just keep Curse of exhaustion on me permanently or run away until he wastes all my cooldowns.

There is no way that my Shadow Priest can beat a kiting Warlock who spams Soul Harvest while keeping me at bay, because if he is good, it will interrupt my casting spells by moving slightly away from my maximum range. He will have full control over me if he does it right. I know this for a fact because my warrior has been kited using the same method by a rogue before, by 'dancing' in the zone where I could not intercept, nor hit him until he regenerated his energy to strike back.

In fact, there was a period of time whereby Shadow Priests were buffed up with a Devouring Plague that dealt 30% instant damage immediately. I could easily defeat warlocks back then by spamming it and kiting them. I could not in Cataclysm due to Fel Flame, and in MoP, unless we get some good zero-CD instant casts, that very same technique can be used to destroy us, though it will only take a very long time.

It's cheap, but it works. That's exactly how good hunters play too.