Warlocks- How are they present and future?

[Deleted]

After seeing the spells in MOP beta for locks, i decided that i would level one and have it as an alt. In a few days ive already leveled it to 57 but now i am beginning to wonder if it is such a good idea...so if you guys could answer me in detail some of these questions i would appreciate it alot as it will help me in deciding whether i want to carry on leveling it. (ps. i have already played a lock to 85 but deleted it soon after it hit level cap as i quit the game)

How are locks pvp wise compared to other classes in 4.3? I know that when mastered they are incredible, as shown by people like Inflamez and Snutz but are they hard to learn? Destro and Affliction comments would be helpful.

How are locks pve wise compared to other clothies? In terms of mages and spriests, are they pumping out insane amounts of dps or are fire mages just stomping over them completely?

Obviously a large part of lock is their pets- are these hard to manage? in pvp and pve?

Finally, Are they actually Fun? My main is a shaman and i never feel bored by enhancement, however, there are classes like shadow priests and hunters which i have gotten quite bored of?
Any info- on my questions or additional would be much appreciated

peace

[Chouzan]

All PvE:

I was describing to guildies just last night how everything on my Warlock feels like an ordeal. It's not always a bad one, or always good, but it's along the lines of to do anything competently I feel like Warlocks have to take three or four more steps than anyone else. A good example is Pet Twisting in Demonology with the Demon Soul buff.

If you're not aware, the general idea is that 6 seconds before Demon Soul's off CD, you hard-cast Summon Felguard, Demon Soul, Felstorm, Soulburn Summon Felhound. While at the same time you're juggling dots and trying to maximize your in-cooldown damage. Weigh that against everyone else's cooldown prep.

Warlocks don't have one or two "money" spells like everyone else, it's all about having a toolkit of mediocre to decent spells that you use in conjunction with one another. In PvE I actually like Demo because it centers very strongly around intelligent usage of cooldowns with an ever-changing CD on Metamorph. Destro PvE feels like I'm intended to be more nukey but the dot aspect of the core class that you must keep up detracts away from that and makes nukes like Conflagration and Incinerate for Destro feel more like the fillers.

[Darsithis]

I think you're better served in the Warlock forum

Personally, though, if you want my opinion, I've never liked locks very much. I've tried leveling several over the years but they always fizzle out for me. I think the DoT-based damage (kind of pointless due to health) combined with long casting time on Shadowbolt has always made me shy away from the class. But that's just me. I also know that right now they're comparable to shadow priests in dps.

[Guldur]

Your main is a shaman, I don't know too much about them as I only have a level 40 but from what I read about them, you might like how a lock plays. Everything on a lock feels very different to all the other classes, not comparable. I had 4 Level 60 locks in classic and it is still my main even though I only have one at 85 now. It can be very easy to forgot even a simple thing like applying CoE on some fights / adds etc, looks is the anti arcane mage and you have to juggle a lot of buttons. Doing extreme stance dancing on my arms warrior feels much easier than playing my lock, but if you like a challenge than hell go for it. It is very fun if you master it, but I have seen a far greater percentage than 50% give up on it even after getting to max level. One of the most underplayed classes in 4.3. I love locks

Now to the PvP Aspect, it is even more button juggling in PvP but once you master it and maybe grab a healer with you, it is immense fun. Think Felhunter's Spelllock, Succu Seduce, Felguard AoE etc etc and the curses, so much stuff to play with and the main thing I can see in Warlock PvP is, there is very different toolkits not just in the different specs, but even the main spells you will use for your play style of that spec, cause there is not one play style fits all in lock pvp.

Hope that little novel helps you.

[Curanhadin]

All PvE:

I was describing to guildies just last night how everything on my Warlock feels like an ordeal. It's not always a bad one, or always good, but it's along the lines of to do anything competently I feel like Warlocks have to take three or four more steps than anyone else. A good example is Pet Twisting in Demonology with the Demon Soul buff.

If you're not aware, the general idea is that 6 seconds before Demon Soul's off CD, you hard-cast Summon Felguard, Demon Soul, Felstorm, Soulburn Summon Felhound. While at the same time you're juggling dots and trying to maximize your in-cooldown damage. Weigh that against everyone else's cooldown prep.

Warlocks don't have one or two "money" spells like everyone else, it's all about having a toolkit of mediocre to decent spells that you use in conjunction with one another. In PvE I actually like Demo because it centers very strongly around intelligent usage of cooldowns with an ever-changing CD on Metamorph. Destro PvE feels like I'm intended to be more nukey but the dot aspect of the core class that you must keep up detracts away from that and makes nukes like Conflagration and Incinerate for Destro feel more like the fillers.

To some point i agree some classes do have a few buttons to mash to be high dps but other classes can do decent but tt really max out dps they have some very complex rotation and timing patterns to master.

[Kouki]

After seeing the spells in MOP beta for locks, i decided that i would level one and have it as an alt. In a few days ive already leveled it to 57 but now i am beginning to wonder if it is such a good idea...so if you guys could answer me in detail some of these questions i would appreciate it alot as it will help me in deciding whether i want to carry on leveling it. (ps. i have already played a lock to 85 but deleted it soon after it hit level cap as i quit the game)

How are locks pvp wise compared to other classes in 4.3? I know that when mastered they are incredible, as shown by people like Inflamez and Snutz but are they hard to learn? Destro and Affliction comments would be helpful.

How are locks pve wise compared to other clothies? In terms of mages and spriests, are they pumping out insane amounts of dps or are fire mages just stomping over them completely?

Obviously a large part of lock is their pets- are these hard to manage? in pvp and pve?

Finally, Are they actually Fun? My main is a shaman and i never feel bored by enhancement, however, there are classes like shadow priests and hunters which i have gotten quite bored of?
Any info- on my questions or additional would be much appreciated

peace

Current: Warlock pets are smart in pve when on Asist, And Stupid in pvp on asist they must be set to defensive or passive.
This does not change in panda. You just get more pets. not really an issue.

Pets are most of your damage and on fights where you fly or for w/e reason the pets all disappear your going to suck in dps.
Al akir is one example.

Damage wise in 4.3 affliction is good on bosses bad on trash, demon and destro stay ok on trash and on bosses but not as good on bosses as affliction is.
All specs lose half their damage if the pet for any reason cant remain in fight.

[A Dark Knight]

OF:i have a feeling that warlocks will become the new FOTM.

Sorry OP cant really help u out much, all i can say is that i really really really enjoy my warlock, 3 spec that are somewhat different than each other

[yuca247]

All PvE:

I was describing to guildies just last night how everything on my Warlock feels like an ordeal. It's not always a bad one, or always good, but it's along the lines of to do anything competently I feel like Warlocks have to take three or four more steps than anyone else. A good example is Pet Twisting in Demonology with the Demon Soul buff.

If you're not aware, the general idea is that 6 seconds before Demon Soul's off CD, you hard-cast Summon Felguard, Demon Soul, Felstorm, Soulburn Summon Felhound. While at the same time you're juggling dots and trying to maximize your in-cooldown damage. Weigh that against everyone else's cooldown prep.

I think that's a big fail on Blizzards part that Demo locks have to do that which is why I stuck to pvp as affliction on my lock.

OT: I think the lock is different enough from all other classes that keeps things interesting. That was my main reason anyways to level a lock and I'm having a lot of fun although he did just hit 85 not too long ago so he still feels "fresh."

[Deleted]

It really isn't worth joining the class currently. There's nothing "exciting", it's not "easy" and you won't be the best at anything. That is the sad truth.
PVE
Like mentioned before, pve wise you have to essentially take 3-4 more steps for everything than other classes, and your numbers will be inferior/subpar unless you're fully geared(i'm talking legendary staff+)
To put this in to perspective, i'll explain how things compare with my alt.
Background: Played warlock extensively since 12/2/2006, "Raided" every tier except vanilla nax and firelands. Always pulled top notch dps[top2 in 10man, no matter the fight] until recently.
Alted a rogue since about 2008, never "raided" on it except in LFR dragon soul.
"Raided" implying doing it when the instance was current content.
The following numbers are pulled from ultraxion LFR mode, under perfect conditions, including no consumables used.

Rouge pulls about 35k dps(ilvl 387)
I press 4-5 buttons[Sinister Strike+Revealing Strike, Eviscerate, Slice & Dice, Killing Spree, Adrenaline Rush+Racial Macro](excluding situational abilities[Feint, Evasion, Cloak of Shadows, Vanish, Blade Flurry].
It's so easy to play, I literally do it on a wired xbox controller plugged into my pc whilst watching tv.

*Warlock pulls about 25k dps(ilvl 384)
I press 9-10 buttons [Haunt, Shadow Bolt, Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Demon Soul, Soulburn, Drain Soul, Doomguard, Life Tap, Soul Fire(4pc t13)] excluding situational abilities[Place Portal, Teleport, Soul Swap]
Bare in mind, this is Affliction, the easiest rotation, I won't get into demonology, with metamorphosis, Immolation aura, demon leap, pet twisting*.
I literally need to give 100% focus to manage my mana/position and to keep an eye on my resource/cooldowns.
*explained above.. completely ridiculous aspect of demonology that makes arguably the hardest spec in the game just even more ludicrous.

PVP
Without getting into this too much, and making me inevitably rage a LOT, it would be easiest just to say "we are a free kill".
just before anyone jumps in here and yells at me to get pvp gear, i'm wearing 5000 resillience when I claim this, I can show you plenty of screenshots where I STILL get destroyed in seconds by melee classes.
Unless you have a personal healer by your side who will literally dedicate themselves just to keep you alive, you WILL die to any other class.
Your damage will never be enough to kill someone else alone.
So if you're thinking of ever dueling anyone, doing random battlegrounds, don't bother.
We are ridiculously overpowered when working as part of a group.(3v3 arena/rated BG's) Which seems to be all these "hardcore" forum go-ers care about, therefore believe we are overpowered in everything, but the sad truth is all we are currently are CC-bots. You dot everything up and cc their healers, whilst the "real" dps'ers kill the target.
*Demonology and Destruction are not physically playable in pvp, they rely to much on hard-casting spells, and destruction suffers from no dispell protection on immolate, meaning once you immolate a target and get ready to cast conflagrate, there will be no penalty for the enemy dispelling said immolate, like there is with other specs/classes(unstable affliction/sin and punishment).

That's currently. As for the future:
what i've seen personally, i'd say affliction is being changed so much that it will be one of the top pvp specs and will be INSANE pve wise.
Can't really speak for the other two specs as I haven't looked into them(they simply don't interest me).
As for the class as a whole, we seem to be getting a LOT of defensive cooldown's in our talent choices, so that should remove the need for a personal healer, however I can't really say how viable we will be without truly testing it out on the beta.

This is assuming they don't decide to nerf anything else though, after the whole "glyph of demon hunting" and "green fire" let-downs as of late though, I have lost any hope of them doing anything else spectacular, and would not be surprised if we get nerfed to the ground further, because you know, 5% of the playerbase is too much... they need to make sure someone migrates to monk at least.

[Bigtimmy]

In terms of PvE: With equal skill and gear, Warlocks are a little ahead of spriests and a little behind mages. Compared to those 2 classes, though, Warlocks tend to require a lot more attention to play for similar results. Overall, Warlocks are still one of the best theoretical PvE DPS in the game. This is only in raids, btw; 5 mans (besides bosses) typically aren't the warlock's strong-suit for various reasons.

In terms of PvP: Warlocks are tremendously powerful in 3v3 arena and in rated BGs. Generally, you need to think of yourself as having a support role in a PvP context. You hide in a bush, hump pillars and dot the piss out of everything, but your raw single target damage is pretty weak. They are NOT balanced around 1v1 "solo" type PvP at all. If you're looking to win duels or whatever, there are better classes to play.

Pets aren't really "hard" to manage, but they do add another layer of complexity to the class that other clothies don't have. A lot of people don't do a great job of micromanaging them, and one of the differences between the average lock you see and the great ones is this aspect of the class.

As for the "fun" thing, only you can answer that. I personally love the class for the flavor and mood it provides, and they're always competitive even in the worst of times. I've mained my lock since mid 2006 (have an 85 of every class, but nothing ever draws me away). Historically, warlocks aren't for the for the faint of heart; however, if you manage to be one of the few exceptional locks on your server, it's much easier to earn a good reputation than it is compared to other classes. This is due to he general historical rarity of great locks, but the MoP changes will probably bring more players to the class.

[Phuongvi]

Like someone mention here, warlock are very good with the proper gear, people say walorck are OP because a lock was doing 30k dps in their LFR but they don't mention that the guy has the legendary staff and the proper haste trinket

Forget about doing decent dammage without raid gear and without proper haste,
I start to have good result with 20% haste and proper haste trinket

Some class can outburst a warlock with crappy gear (pvp crafted / resilience or ilvl359 gear) even if you have a 385 ilvl