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  1. #1

    Warlock or hunter? For soloing old contents.

    Hello

    Im getting bored of my warrior soloing old contents and Im thinking about get up a ranged class to 90level for soloing old content purpose.

    Warlock with selfhealing and powerful pet or hunter with larger choice of pets and traps?




    I have both classes on 85level.

  2. #2
    Deleted
    Traditionally hunters have been better. In this xpac, I have no idea but I'm sure both will work.

  3. #3
    Hunter is probably still the king.
    Various pets, self healing from spirit beast, high burst damage, good CC with shots and traps. If mob can be slowed you can kite it forever, no mana - you can't wear out during fight only damaging abilities cost focus.
    I actually soloed most of the old content with ease on level 85 and 90.

  4. #4
    Don't have a hunter but I'd throw in a vote for Warlock on the extremely (once more for emphasis *extremely*) biased stance that I tend to solo content easier than another person I play with who solos on a hunter. I solo on warlock, warbringers inclusive, not 100% sure if hunters can outheal to do that.
    You're just jealous because the voices are talking to me!

  5. #5
    Thanks for replies, I will decide one later.

  6. #6
    Warlock pets are glitchier/buggier and squishier. Warlock gets the nod, though, for encounters where you can't use a pet and melee range is required, because of the "tanking" glyph.

  7. #7
    I play a hunter, but I feel like warlocks could have a decent advantage depending on the fight. Particularly any fight with lots of unavoidable damage on the hunter, or fights where heavy utilization of the pet as a tank isn't possible. Though there's spirit beast, hunters don't have the best self-healing to outlast fights where there's regular damage that can't be avoided or mitigated.

  8. #8
    Deleted
    hunter, the pet can tank anything

  9. #9
    warlock imho

  10. #10
    Warlock has amazing survivability skills. Healthstones, Soulstones, A variety of damage mitigation spells, self healing spells, teleportation if the fight demands it, and a 10% stamina buff.

    The only downside if you're affliction warlock is that your main resource (soul shards) don't regenerate when you kill mobs that don't give honor or xp. They will regenerate slowly while out of combat, and will still generate while in combat, but automatically getting a full load of them by killing something is gone.

    Edit: as an example, with the proper talents you can end up with 800k+ hp, or 600k hp combined with a 600k damage shield that lasts for 20 seconds and has a 60 second coolodown. Hell, even if you take the talents that give you buffed up pets, you can still roll with 500k+ hp and a 300k damage shield on the same 20/60 sec rotation. And that's on top of a shield you build yourself (up to a maximum of 100% of your HP) by channeling spells. In theory you could build an 800k shield + a 600k castable shield + 800k health.

    And if you die you can resurrect yourself with 100% health.
    Last edited by schmearcampain; 2013-04-23 at 03:49 AM.

  11. #11
    I used to solo a bunch on both my hunter and lock at 85. Right now only my lock is at 90 and I've solo'd quite a bit with it. Keep in mind I haven't tried soloing with my hunter at 90, but I think warlocks have an easier time of it. As others have pointed out, they have loads of utility, self healing, and good dps. Soloing as a hunter can have some scary times if there's lots of unavoidable damage.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by link4117 View Post
    I used to solo a bunch on both my hunter and lock at 85. Right now only my lock is at 90 and I've solo'd quite a bit with it. Keep in mind I haven't tried soloing with my hunter at 90, but I think warlocks have an easier time of it. As others have pointed out, they have loads of utility, self healing, and good dps. Soloing as a hunter can have some scary times if there's lots of unavoidable damage.
    The lack of an interrupt that has a lockout is a big problem with warlocks. Every spec should have a 20s "real interrupt" these days anyway. You will brick wall and be stuck with weird marginal strategies against certain ordinary mobs/bosses like the Pandaren monk rares without a real interrupt.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by schmearcampain View Post
    Warlock has amazing survivability skills. Healthstones, Soulstones, A variety of damage mitigation spells, self healing spells, teleportation if the fight demands it, and a 10% stamina buff.

    The only downside if you're affliction warlock is that your main resource (soul shards) don't regenerate when you kill mobs that don't give honor or xp. They will regenerate slowly while out of combat, and will still generate while in combat, but automatically getting a full load of them by killing something is gone.
    That is why I mostly solo as Destruction. Shadowburn will give 2 Embers if it kills, even stuff in Tempest Keep, and Ember Tap adds more healing into the fray.

    Only time I dip out of Destro is if I am off to Blackwing Lair. I use Demo + GoSac for Razorgore and the whelp room (Razorgore makes it so every single add comes to me due to the self-healing of GoSac, and whelp room so I can Demonic Leap + Intercept across the room, instead of crawling).
    Games are not necessarily "easier" today. You are just a better player.
    It takes more now to impress many gamers than it did 2-5 years ago, because so much has already been seen and done.
    Many players expect to be wow'd with every release of a beloved franchise.
    These are generally NOT the fault of the developers, but the fault of many players over-hyping and/or setting expectations too high.

  14. #14
    That really depends on what it is you want to solo, they are generally very similar in what they can do with the only real differences showing at challenging wrath/cata solos. Obviously both can abuse certain things the other can't etc.


    A few differences that I notice generally soloing stuff on both:

    • Threat. Misdirection is not on the GCD anymore in MoP, so hunters can literally faceroll spam it all day long sending every single mob effortlessly to their pet, no dps loss whatsoever. Locks have to sometimes work a bit harder for threat management.
    • Locks are mana users and that can be a small inconvenience/problem for certain bosses. Hunters are energy users now so don't have a problem with that at all.
    • Locks can be silenced and interrupted, also a small inconvenience/problem for certain bosses. Hunters can only be interrupted if they are stunned/feared/whatever so no problem.
    • Locks can easily resummon pets in combat if they need to. A hunter changing or reviving pets is clunky and a considerable dps loss.
    • Locks can sacrifice their pet on pet unfriendly bosses no problem. Hunters can also be petless because there is no more deadzone, but it severely affects their survivability and damage.
    • Hunter's feign death ability is a huge quality of life improvement over locks, from mindlessly skipping trash to avoiding repair bills. Hunters can also use it to cheese a ton of mechanics. Locks obviously don't have it
    • Hunters are much better at healing their pet, and have slightly better tanking pets. Locks are much better at healing self or self+pet if both take a lot of damage.
    • Pet buffs give hunters a big advantage in many situations. Using a corehound for bloodlust can really help with certain bosses for example.

  15. #15
    Hunter with a spirit beast is king for pet soloing

    Things like stampede and beastial wrath will give you great burst dps and your pet can easily heal itself and hold aggro

    so go hunter all the way you wont regret it

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Thelxi View Post
    That really depends on what it is you want to solo, they are generally very similar in what they can do with the only real differences showing at challenging wrath/cata solos. Obviously both can abuse certain things the other can't etc.

    A few differences that I notice generally soloing stuff on both:
    * Continual knockback especially from adds is just terrible on locks.
    * Lock pet summons have a 1 min cooldown. Hunters can spam new pets.
    * Only one lock pet is even remotely tough enough to think of as a "tanking" pet even if you are demo. Unfortunately, the tanking pet doesn't have an interrupt or stun. It does do great DPS though, which is good because you may most of your time channeling a weak heal on it.
    * While lock self and pet heals might have more throughput, they basically have to be channeled. Hunters have a passive self heal and an instant and quite powerful pet HoT.
    * And of course hunters have better CC.

    That said, it's possible to work around almost all of the above as a warlock. It's just clunky.

  17. #17
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    Hunter gets the edge IMO due to amazing pet heals and being able to provide every buff for yourself like heroism, but some bosses are immune to Growl and so, you'll have to spam MD or be mindful of your threat. Lock pet Threatening Presence, on the other hand, seems to always work.

  18. #18
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by HardCoder View Post
    * Continual knockback especially from adds is just terrible on locks.
    * Lock pet summons have a 1 min cooldown. Hunters can spam new pets.
    * Only one lock pet is even remotely tough enough to think of as a "tanking" pet even if you are demo. Unfortunately, the tanking pet doesn't have an interrupt or stun. It does do great DPS though, which is good because you may most of your time channeling a weak heal on it.
    * While lock self and pet heals might have more throughput, they basically have to be channeled. Hunters have a passive self heal and an instant and quite powerful pet HoT.
    * And of course hunters have better CC.

    That said, it's possible to work around almost all of the above as a warlock. It's just clunky.
    - Lock instant summon is 1min cooldown. You can spam the hardcast summon without a cooldown.
    - You don't need to channel any heal on your pet as a warlock. Instant heals (SB:HF) or passive healing (Soul Leech+Soul Link does wonders as destro) are enough. Since MoP I've never used a channel heal on any of my solo kills.

    Nobody mentionned Demonic Gateway as a aggro drop. Not as convenient as feign death, but very useful for locks.

    Still hunters are better
    Last edited by mmoc79b51183ff; 2013-04-23 at 07:21 AM.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Ysen View Post
    - Lock instant summon is 1min cooldown. You can spam the hardcast summon without a cooldown.
    - You don't need to channel any heal on your pet as a warlock. Instant heals (SB:HF) or passive healing (Soul Leech+Soul Link does wonders as destro) are enough. Since MoP I've never used a channel heal on any of my solo kills.

    Nobody mentionned Demonic Gateway as a aggro drop. Not as convenient as feign death, but very useful for locks.

    Still hunters are better
    Ah yes well I play pretty much only Demo and haven't played my lock much until recently this expansion. My spriest is apparently my affliction lock now.

    When they designed the "beastmaster" lock they forgot/neglected to include pet heals. Still, the DPS from the grimoired void lord is just ridiculous when it's taking damage.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by HardCoder View Post
    The lack of an interrupt that has a lockout is a big problem with warlocks. Every spec should have a 20s "real interrupt" these days anyway. You will brick wall and be stuck with weird marginal strategies against certain ordinary mobs/bosses like the Pandaren monk rares without a real interrupt.
    Warlocks can use felhunter as an interrupt if they need one. they also get that interrupt through grimsac.

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