Warlock Class Designer

[checking facts]

Yes, as long as it is actually balanced. We are below mages and spriests speaking of casters, and we get hard countered by all melee due how little defense we have. We can run, and that's it.
In cataclysm you could actually take a melee face to face, right now if you don't teleport away instantly or pop cooldowns, you are dead.

than the problem isn't that warlocks need to be improved, but that other classes need to be improved by being nerfed.

[Jessicka]

I don't know it feels like we got a lot of what we wished for with the latest PTR build. It really made me think that whomever replaced Xelnath reads this forum.

I think there might be a small hint here...

In the end, I really love my new job and stay in touch with a number of my old coworkers. I am just sad that you haven't had the opportunity to see all of the people who help everyday to make this game great.

[Nicola]

than the problem isn't that warlocks need to be improved, but that other classes need to be improved by being nerfed.

I think you misunderstood me.
2/3 warlock specs, affliction and destruction, got wrecked for PvP while all they really needed were QoL changes. The only spec that improved for PvP was demonology, the other 2 got fucked over by the revamp.

Affliction went from a chemical battletank to a bloodfear bot, destruction went from good (very good if immolate didn't get dispelled) to "ok". Right now all you have to do to win games is to tunnel the warlock and hope his warrior/feral/fotm partner doesn't kill you.

All you do in games now is running and fearing stuff around so your partner can get a kill. If they let you freecast, you'll do some good sustained damage as affliction and some big hits as destruction, but that's it.
Heck, in the yaspresent tournament I've seen games where they just ignored the affly lock letting him freecast 80% of the game and didn't give a fuck about the damage. When teams can win by tunneling the warlock or just by totally ignoring the warlock, it's not good.

Also, it's easier to fix 1 class than having to nerf 10 classes. As in 5.2, every class will have at least 1 spec that's better than what any of the 3 warlock speces have to offer.

[Hellfury]

Funny the abilities Xelnath mentions

Harvest Life: Pretty useless most of the time.
GoSac: Such a controversial ability still to this day, most just embraced it but ended creating issues, both good and bad
Demonic Leap: Love it but was bugged for the whole beta till 5.1

[Moggie]

...Koraa...

Had tried so hard to forget the fiascos of Koraa... We shall now perma erase this name from all records!

[Jessicka]

GoSac: Such a controversial ability still to this day, most just embraced it but ended creating issues, both good and bad

People only embraced it because it's a case of do so, or play Demo.

[Uzkin]

People only embraced it because it's a case of do so, or play Demo.

People only embraced it because it's a case of do so, or play Demo.

Not true. I was delighted with the possibility to get rid of the demon in MoP. It was such a huge burden during Cata (Sinestra, Ragnaros, Beth'tilac, Alysrazor, Majordomo, Deathwing HC, ...) due to various pet bugs (pathing failures, failures to attack, etc), slow movement/target switch, not receiving some fight-specific buffs, despawning, getting insta gibbed, not responding to commands, and so on and so on. Some of the bugs were eventually fixed, or ppl figured out ways to circumvent the problems with only a moderate dps loss, but this doesn't chance the fact that having to deal with such a walking*) handicap on top of what was probably the most complicated/messy dps rotation of all class-specs sucked hard. I sincerely hope that petless warlock specs remain competitive or even preferred for affli and/or destro.

*) "Walking" of course was a misleading term in many cases. "Running aimlessly until despawn" or "just standing there doing nothing" were often far more descriptive expressions.

[Harsesis]

I just put my pet on passive and keybound his attack. He went where I wanted him when I wanted him.

[xskarma]

People only embraced it because it's a case of do so, or play Demo.

I don't think anyone should speak for more than themselves on topics that concern what they like. I like petless Warlock, both through convenience of not having to take care of my pet AND through aesthetics and feel. I mean how bad ass is it to sacrifice a demon to obtain more power for yourself? If that isn't warlock I don't know what is, and I love it for being in the game. And I can assure you I'll keep using it as long as it is viable to do so. I'll still use Supremacy for dailies and scenarios and such. Different niches for different grimoires, that's the intention, right?

[checking facts]

I mean how bad ass is it to sacrifice a demon to obtain more power for yourself?

I find it rather mean

[deviantcultist]

People only embraced it because it's a case of do so, or play Demo.

I personally love the Warlock class and prefer to use Sacrifice. What differentiates the class from Mages isn't the pet, but the whole spellbook and philosophy. It is bad to have one talent, in this case sacrifice, to be viable, but it doesn't have to be the other way around. They should be balanced with minor differences per situation and generally be a matter of preference

[Veyne]

I certainly wish they hadn't done so much to affliction... changing things just for the sake of keeping up with the changes that the other 2 specs needed. Went from feeling like the most solid and unique warlock spec to a poormans shadow priest

As a former main spec Shadow Priest for 4 years and a weekend-spec-only-becuase-I-couldn't-afford-respecs-more-often-back-then Shadow Priest during TBC, all I have to say is...

Wut?

Affliction feels so much better now than Shadow ever has.

Just my opinion, though.

[Cybran]

For me Blizzard will always remain a soulless corporation with only profit in mind. Everything they say is a PR stunt to get more money by pretending they know or care about their game.

[Jessicka]

I don't think anyone should speak for more than themselves on topics that concern what they like. I like petless Warlock, both through convenience of not having to take care of my pet AND through aesthetics and feel. I mean how bad ass is it to sacrifice a demon to obtain more power for yourself? If that isn't warlock I don't know what is, and I love it for being in the game. And I can assure you I'll keep using it as long as it is viable to do so. I'll still use Supremacy for dailies and scenarios and such. Different niches for different grimoires, that's the intention, right?

I could have phrased it better sure, but I get a pretty strong impression that 'a lot' of players feel that way. No doubt a lot like Sacrifice too, but I don't think it was ever intended to be regarded as the default selection - an observation made by GC in several recent tweets (I also get the impression he doesn't like it, and that it's probably sucked up more than it's fair share of development time).

That default selection of course means raiding. Different Grimoires for different niches has a lot of connotations - because we also have different pets for different situations. In your model, I guess you use Sac for raiding and Void Lord for questing. That leaves out basically everything else; while pressing us into separate 'questing' and 'raiding' builds. I think that's just a pain, and really leaves us in no better situation regarding pets than we ever were since classic in terms of 'the default pet' - it's just become the 'default no-pet': And where does that leave Service?

[checking facts]

I use wrathguard for raiding and wrathguard for questing. killing 10-12 mobs at the same time than going for the next group is the best way to quest

[Scathbais]

For me Blizzard will always remain a soulless corporation with only profit in mind. Everything they say is a PR stunt to get more money by pretending they know or care about their game.

Could you honestly imaging a team of game designers that spent countless hours developing a game but not actually caring about the end result?
If your opinion were actually fact (thankfully it is just ignorance on your part) WoW would have died a quick painful death.

The fact that their are 10 million paid subscribers is direct proof that you are completely wrong on this one.

[PickleballAce]

Not to pile on but if all three Grimoires were perfectly equal and there were no balance considerations to be taken, my preference would still be Sacrifice as well. I love the talent on multiple levels. But obviously the state of being "perfectly equal" is a bit of a pipe dream with all the different mechanics that might create slight advantages.

[Nerraw]

I find it rather mean

It's okay, you're a warlock.

[Kathranis]

Hey, Xelnath, I just wanted to let you know that my Fel Flame battle pet is now named Xelnath. Thanks for supporting my favorite class!

[checking facts]

It's okay, you're a warlock.

warlocks are good guys. we give soul flavored candy to kids and let them play with our felpuppies