Are Warlocks Still 'Fun' In Beta?

[Debased]

The affliction change is disappointing but demo/destro do look largely the same. By the looks of it PvP for casters will be completely painful until 6.1 at least so I'm not very worried about PvP (my monks gotta do something right). I'm just wondering if raiding will be dull/ painful as a warlock. From what I've read the fights are very movement intensive and I've always hated being a turret casters in those situations. I remember the pain as an old school lock/ ele shaman.

[Singularity]

Warlocks received their big update in MoP, so I don't really know what people were expecting? If you liked playing a Warlock in MoP, you'll still enjoy it in WoD. The loss of KJC and Fel Flame takes some getting used to, but it doesn't break the class. For me the class still feels very iconich and that's the most important part for me

See ya'll in Draenor

[Novx]

The affliction change is disappointing but demo/destro do look largely the same. By the looks of it PvP for casters will be completely painful until 6.1 at least so I'm not very worried about PvP (my monks gotta do something right). I'm just wondering if raiding will be dull/ painful as a warlock. From what I've read the fights are very movement intensive and I've always hated being a turret casters in those situations. I remember the pain as an old school lock/ ele shaman.

Considering demo is looking to be the "Go to" spec for most fights movement isn't really an issue as it is on its own one of the most mobile ranged specs (minus hunter specs as a whole of course). I don't really agree with the removal of Fel Flame AND Kil'Jaedan's but it isn't that bad to be honest. As it stands if you like the class currently you will likely enjoy it in WoD after you get used to the changes.

[gahddo]

Yes. I think the class as a whole is still the most enjoyable class I've played on beta. It has many issues on beta presently, most of which probably won't be addressed until after the first tier 17. That being said, it doesn't mean that somehow the other classes haven't been screwed even worse.

I have two primary complaints for the class overall. The 100 tier is a joke for every spec, and we have no raid utility what-so-ever.

The second leads to a design concept issue. Either warlocks are overtuned, causing other dps to QQ until we are nerfed, OR we're mediocre at dps, and other specs bring vastly more to the raid. In the second case, there is no reason to bring a warlock to a hardcore raiding environment.

The 100 talent tier won't change before live. What you see is what you get.

SB:Haunt is at best Improved Soul Fire, and at worst, MUCH WORSE.
Charred remains fundamentally undermines the design of destruction as a spec.
Demonbolt is alright in my mind. Yes, it unfairly ties us to turreting for 10 seconds out of every 70, but it's at least the best talent of all those warlocks have in the tier.
Cataclysm is mediocre. I'm not going to QQ and beg for a replacement. I would like to see the damage tuned back slightly and the spell given a 2.5 sec cast time down from 3.
Demonic Servitude is boring and not fun in anyway. Not to mention doomguard SUCKS ASS. They seem to have no plans to fix doomguard, so prepare for this to be a dps loss to have over no talent.

Now, aside from the obvious issues I have with the entire 100 tier, if they had just deleted the entire tier from warlocks, I'd be happy with the current state.

A lot of people have complained about affliction, when in reality it hasn't really changed much. The only difference is the veil has now been lifted. THE SPEC HAS ALWAYS BEEN BORING. The only reason it had any remote level of depth in mop was snapshotting, which the devs didn't even foresee in the first place. The soul swap change just forces us back to pre-mop style affliction of cycling dots instead of just spamming SS for days.

Demonology is largely unchanged. The only real thing to complain about is the 100 tier, and possibly glyph of dark soul. Personally, I prefer the fast paced demonbolt dumping that is on beta to what it was at the start of mop. SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. Spend 2 entire minutes spamming shadow bolt and maybe have time to hop into meta and throw out a few ToCs between dark soul, and then do that over and over. Gear slows down destruction and demonology much more than people realize. It was going to happen regardless of any changes, I think demonbolt/GoDS helps cushion the impact of the spec being slower.

Destruction is my baby. I can think of no other spec in the game that has as complicated of a decision making tree on REALISTIC FIGHTS. Yes, on patchwerk it's freaking easy as hell. But, when you factor in adds, the timing of adds, movement, FaB, RoF, Havoc, SB refund mechanics, the delayed ember generation etc etc...I just find it to be so entertaining. There have been few fights in the entire expansion where I didn't come up with a way for destruction to fit a niche role that demo/affli were lacking. Then again, I come from 10m, so that has a bias on my opinion.

I feel that charred remains was a reaction to the inevitable slowing down dropping from bis end-game to blues. I think it is POORLY executed, with a decent concept. I think that if cataclysm/demonic servitude are as good or even slightly worse, I will *NEVER* use CR. I haven't tested this in simc yet, but I'd expect something along the lines of 30% damage reduction for 100% more embers, would be an ideal state for me. 2x the embers for a minor hit to ember generator damage. This allows some more complicated thought than just 'spam cb', while still making the spec feel much faster.

Unless warlocks are *bad* I will probably not reroll. The raid utility shit isn't important to me, I play what I find to be the most fun. Overall, the class has about the same amount of depth as live, but the new mechanics added are lackluster.


-edit- on the subject of the loss of KJC, I guess you didn't play back in t14 when it was a trash talent in 95% of cases? Fel Flame needs to come back to justify KJC being changed, but if they add FF back I'd be ok with KJC not even existing as a talent.

[Nerraw]

Unless Warlocks are utter garbage in terms of damage, as in not viable, re-rolling is not an option for me. I doubt that'll be the case.

I'm invested in the class to the point where I can never really get into anything else. I like my Priest, DK, Warrior, etc., but they just aren't a Warlock.

I know what you're saying, and it's definitely not an easy decision to abandon my main of 5 years. But playing it on the beta leaves me in pain over what they've done with the class.

[Jessicka]

When Touch of Chaos is nerfed to the ground, as well it will be, people are going to stop saying that it is the go to for movement fights. Pissing away Fury on ToC for movement is a Very Bad Thing, please understand that.

[Rayaleith]

Well, I leveled one to 100 and now leveling my hunter. Some pointers.

- Once you love the warlock class you cannot easily un-love them. They are still a cool class. Was VERY cool at MoP.

-If you are not world top 30, you really should not worry much of what you will bring to a raid and focus on what you play best in my opinion.

- They really are trying to remove as much "coolness" as they can. I think that pruning hit us the most, since we had really many spells. And the thing is that most of our spells was/is very cool and original. They removed some signature lock spells (eg curses ), they nerfed healthstones, gateways etc. That really hurt the class.

- At leveling you will to have choose between one-shotting with Chaos Bolts or get some faster paced gameplay with demo. Comparing to the hunter, loss of MoP KJC really tells.

In general, I really thing that we'll be a bit underwhelming at start. But they will change things at later patches. I am a bit disappointed on the changes but I probably will not reroll. In our guild we had cleared the content and we were 3-4 locks. It seems that I will be the only one left since the others will reroll.

[sugarfree]

I don't know, but it seems a new Cataclysm looms over warlocks. I've been playing this class since forever and abandoned it in Cata because it was that stupid. Going back to the lowest played class and devs will just twist it and say warlocks just need to learn to play, you know.

God, I hope this will be a disaster and heads will roll over there at Blizz.

[Nerraw]

The one thing I loved about Cataclysm was Affliction. Good lord, that spec was godlike to play.

[Durantye]

About as fun as any class in WoD can be with the removal of snap shotting.

[Grizelda]

I enjoy the Warlock class and I enjoy playing WoW.

But it's not my fucking job.

I won't feel like less of a man if I play a Spriest or skip the whole expansion and surf more this fall.

[Baconeggcheese]

Warlocks received their big update in MoP, so I don't really know what people were expecting?

People were expecting them not to spend an entire expansion refining a class to go *hmm I think we should completely overhaul how this class plays again, but this time make it super clunky instead."

[Master Guns]

First off, as a Warlock, I never ever used Fel Flame, ever. I just never do. It's a fairly pointless spell unless you're a hardcore raider or a hardcore pvp'er. I'm neither, so the loss is irrelevant. I also never spec into KJC, because that's not optimal for PvE, which is what I am, a casual raider.

Therefore, Destro locks in WoD = virtually the exact same thing in MoP, but they even have more flavor. Being able to perma-summon a green Abyssal? Uh, yes please.

[Grizelda]

You played Destro, never specced into KJC AND you never used Fel Flame?

I suppose you wouldn't understand others concerns then.

[evertonbelmontt]

You're a very different type of casual player oO

[Nerraw]

First off, as a Warlock, I never ever used Fel Flame, ever. I just never do. It's a fairly pointless spell unless you're a hardcore raider or a hardcore pvp'er. I'm neither, so the loss is irrelevant. I also never spec into KJC, because that's not optimal for PvE, which is what I am, a casual raider.

Therefore, Destro locks in WoD = virtually the exact same thing in MoP, but they even have more flavor. Being able to perma-summon a green Abyssal? Uh, yes please.

How long have you played warlock?

[Baconeggcheese]

First off, as a Warlock, I never ever used Fel Flame, ever. I just never do. It's a fairly pointless spell unless you're a hardcore raider or a hardcore pvp'er.

Wat is this I don't even.

[Kanariya]

The one thing I loved about Cataclysm was Affliction. Good lord, that spec was godlike to play.

Cataclysm's saving grace tbh.

[Xag]

First off, as a Warlock, I never ever used Fel Flame, ever. I just never do. It's a fairly pointless spell unless you're a hardcore raider or a hardcore pvp'er. I'm neither, so the loss is irrelevant. I also never spec into KJC, because that's not optimal for PvE, which is what I am, a casual raider.

Therefore, Destro locks in WoD = virtually the exact same thing in MoP, but they even have more flavor. Being able to perma-summon a green Abyssal? Uh, yes please.

What in the world did you do for movement?

I think we may have found the warlock that blizz watched when they decided on some of these changes...

[Drutt]

Arcane mage with Rune of Power is perfectly viable for MOP raiding, including heroics. It has virtually no ability to cast on the move and is rooted to a small circle in order to DPS. Despite this complete lack of mobility, it is still a viable spec.

KJC and Fel Flame's importance for raiding are massively overstated. Are they nice? Yes. Are locks broken without them? No. Not even close. Locks are shaping up to be just fine.