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  1. #1
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    Do you have fun with your Warlock these days?

    Because I don't. I actually dislike playing him right now.

    I used to be a hardcore raider, raiding as much as 6 days a week. Our guild constantly achieved Realm first kills and we were in top 300 guilds in the world.

    At the end of MoP i retired from WoW, instead focusing on my career and social life, but recently I returned, now only as a casual player. As such, having fun while playing my character is the most important thing for me. It used to be being at the top of the progress peloton, but now it is solely about the gameplay. And I hate it.

    Let me be more precise. I started hating it with the RoF nerf.

    Destruction

    Destruction Warlock for me was one of the most fun things in video games. Not just WoW, but all video games. It used to be so fluid, it used to have a rhythm.

    I was looking forward to AoEing with my lock, not because I usually topped the meters, but because FnB is so damn cool spell to use. I loved Destro single target. I actually spent my whole MoP raiding career not using KJC, so I could not care less about losing it. MF was just perfect for lock. For mobility, you had your RoF, your Conflag and your Fel Flame. It had all the tools that made it a great spec.

    But now? FnB might as well be gone from your action bars along with RoF if you are not speccing CR (and I'm not speccing this godawful talent). I'm not even aoeing in dungeons anymore. I still top the DPS on "AoE" fights, because I abuse the shit out of Havoc/SB, but I don't have fun anymore. Our single target is so boring now. It takes ages to get an ember, it feels slow and exhausting.

    Don't let me start about Demonic Servitude, the worst fucking talent they could possibly come up with. I'm really not amazed by shifting quarter of my damage into 10 years old horrible looking model. I want to play my Warlock and I want him to feel powerful. I dont want to play 0,75*Warlock.

    Affliction

    Affliction has always been my off spec. The idea of having two specs so different and distinct gameplay-wise was always appealing to me as I could switch the specs back and forth to keep things fresh. Was I in a mood for DoT and channeling spells? There goes my Affliction spec.

    Affliction is however at even a worse place than Destruction, I feel. Every shard feels So. Fucking. Precious. You almost don't want to cast that Haunt because you don't know if another Shard is coming.

    About Shards. Soul Shards were intended as a mechanic that could empower your other spells. Not anymore. Now it is a Haunt-exclusive resourse. It is better to save it for Haunt, then to have that increased movement speed from SB: Teleport. It might be actually better to summon your pet, than to Soul Burn him. And Soul Swap is another FnB case. Haunt is so powerful (and SB: Haunt even more so), that spending your shards on something else feels like a step back. It feel like having a pawn in chess ready to queen and instead promoting to a knight.

    As such, not only Soul Swap is useless (or better yet, too costly to use), the whole Soul Burn is too costly to use. They might as well throw it out of the window completely and just replace it with Soul Burn: Haunt. There is so much potential in this spell. So many things it could do, but it does none of it and can do none of it.

    This is the worst I felt about this character. I'd rather have old Cata "Clusterfuck Destruction Warlock" back, than having been presented with so much potential only for it to be taken away.

    Anyway, that is my ranty feeling about Warlock now.

    What is yours. Do you have fun playing your Warlock these days?
    Last edited by mmoc66d840c490; 2014-11-28 at 11:40 PM.

  2. #2
    Honestly I have loved Warlock so much ever since I started it in TBC. From the Affliction LK days to the Destruction and Demonology Cataclysm days to the MoP Destruction I feel like it's all been good. But now every single specc is lackluster to me.
    I don't like how Demonology is played at all and I find it very boring.
    Affliction is essentially putting up 3 dots and then clicking a channeling spell every 3 seconds while keep those precious soul shards for trinket procs
    And destruction which has always been my favorite specc has been made a dead specc with the rain of fire change it feels like. You can no longer aoe for longer than 7 seconds and for that you basically lose damage instead of gain it, since you use up 4 embers. The single target is insanely crap atm. and the cleave is less than most classes single target.

    Essentially I would break warlocks down to:
    - Bad AoE
    - Bad single target
    - Bad mobility
    - Above average cleave

  3. #3
    I do. It's just a weird love/hate relationship. Sometimes I really enjoy playing my warlock and then other times I really hate it and end up cheating on mine with an alt.

  4. #4
    Yup, nothing else I'd rather play.

  5. #5
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    I agree with most of this. I've played my lock for 10 years. Every expansion, there was no question that my warlock was forever my "main", while my friends constantly switched what they played.

    But now? Yeah, it feels pretty shitty. It's really hard for me to even consider switching my focus to one of my alts and this is really the first time I've ever felt this way. It's pretty damn sad.

    I'll probably just play my hunter, along with my friend who abandoned his mage after hitting 100 on it for his hunter. It's still early, and I'll hope for some changes to come. But it feels like casters are just not in a great place right now?

  6. #6
    I just want a real affliction spec back! This mutation we have now is missing at least one dot and give back shadow bolts until execute phase !!!!! Also dots should hit a lot harder dot farming should be a thing fuck haunt and the new soulshard bar I have a bag from molten core especially made for shards!

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Talthanor View Post
    I do. It's just a weird love/hate relationship. Sometimes I really enjoy playing my warlock and then other times I really hate it and end up cheating on mine with an alt.
    I agree with this, but as they keep making changes (like RoF) it makes me cheat on him more and more!
    Battletag: Chris#23952 (EU)
    Warlock

  8. #8
    I tend to agree, MOP was obviously quite rewarding as an all-time Warlock player, however WOD seems to be the counter to that. Two days ago a guild member asked me what he could possibly do wrong since his damage sucks, so I went to his garrison and he showed me his single target gameplay and then I showed him mine, he wasn't too happy finding out that it wasn't him but rather the class. :/

    To be honest, I try not to think about it and just give it my best as I still love the class itself, unlike its current state and especially Affliction as a spec, up to MOP I used to play Affliction only. :/

  9. #9
    Deleted
    the biggest problem these days is they buffed hybrid classes and pure dps classes like warlock are nerfed to the ground + no more mobility so basically if you are playing a caster atm and you want to be where you was before the exp go melee/hybrid.

  10. #10
    Honestly, after getting over the Rain of Fire nerf, I'm enjoying Destruction. It actually takes some skill to do good AoE damage as you need to really know the timing to do stuff like Shadowburn cleaving. Managing that with the low amount of embers you're working with has become a new challenge. If you do it right, you're rewarded and if you don't, you're screwed.

    Movement also doesn't seem that bad if you have to move outside the 10s window you need to dump your 4 Chaos Bolts with Dark Soul on. And you can just fire 1 and rebuild the embers during that movement phase (we're still bulky enough where we can not move for 2-3 seconds if the mechanic is not a 1-shot mechanic).

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Gihelle View Post
    Honestly, after getting over the Rain of Fire nerf, I'm enjoying Destruction. It actually takes some skill to do good AoE damage as you need to really know the timing to do stuff like Shadowburn cleaving. Managing that with the low amount of embers you're working with has become a new challenge. If you do it right, you're rewarded and if you don't, you're screwed.

    Movement also doesn't seem that bad if you have to move outside the 10s window you need to dump your 4 Chaos Bolts with Dark Soul on. And you can just fire 1 and rebuild the embers during that movement phase (we're still bulky enough where we can not move for 2-3 seconds if the mechanic is not a 1-shot mechanic).
    To do good AOE you'd need to take the glyph for 6 instead of 3 charges for Havoc including Cataclysm, that way it should still be quite good. However it seems to be lacking still compared to Chain lightning for instance, while Glyph+Cataclysm can be used once a minute essentially and the effective use really depends on having an unequal health distribution amongst the enemies in front of you - or at least a single mob that has not been in the focus at all is needed to do this effectively.
    So yeah, it's about skill to see these kinds of situations and act upon it, however let's say the group goes down almost equally, it'll be much harder to keep up.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Avikur View Post
    I agree with this, but as they keep making changes (like RoF) it makes me cheat on him more and more!
    I'm toying with the idea of making a DK for some Ashran fun. It's just hard to motivate myself since I dislike having achievements spread out across different characters.

    There really should be a proper account bound system. Especially with such major sweeping changes being made to various classes with each new patch/expansion.

  13. #13
    The Unstoppable Force Ghostpanther's Avatar
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    I use to. Not anymore. The recent hot fix makes me want to keep him on the bench.

  14. #14
    No, not really. I'm just spending time with my Garrison, which is fun. I don't have recount, so I don't know how I do damage wise compared to others in dungeons. PvP is just.. meeeeeeh. Despite the damage increase buffs, I'm not feeling it. At all. Cataclysm feels like the most useless spell ever, Charred Remains is ... I imagine 2,5k incinerates, Demonic Servitude is what I play now, even though I hate playing with a pet.

    Leveling felt a little slow, but I was able to solo all group quests and rares, however not having Fel Flame to kill a mob because it had 28k hp left and Shadowburn hit it for 25k is just ... sad.

    I don't understand the reasoning behind the RoF nerf.

    I've been able to do decent damage overall - judging by the pvp scoreboard - but it honestly doesn't feel like the same anymore. Who's scared of Chaos Bolt? No one. You're better off saving the slow-regenerating embers for healing tbh. I've yet to duel anyone, mostly because I can feel the outcome

    Tried some demo (which is to say first time playing it for a very long time, and in a bg) and it's not fun at all. Maybe I suck with cheesing Demonbolt but the damage just doesnt seem to be there.

    Project Dk is almost 81, however, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

  15. #15
    The Unstoppable Force Gaidax's Avatar
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    <3 my Destruction Warlock... CR is loads of fun too and so is Cataclysm.

    All the difference for me is that I can't run around spamming Incinerate, no biggie really, I was a turret in PvE for years before MoP and I liked it, so I'm good.

    Besides with CR, my warlock REALLY reminds me of TBC DS/Ruin I was raiding with, basically Chaos Bolt is your new Shadow Bolt (back then it had uber scaling and was really hittng hard in case someone forgot) and instead of lifetap you just Immolate/rest of the stuff.
    Last edited by Gaidax; 2014-11-29 at 02:57 PM.

  16. #16
    I'm not having nearly as much fun as I used to.

    I've played warlock since early BC (with a raiding break during Cataclysm and MoP until 5.4). It just feels like our toolkit is in the worst shape it's ever been in.

    1) Affliction

    Always been my favorite spec, especially early BC when balancing 5 dots (agony, unstable affliction, corruption, siphon life, immolate). Movement was fantastic because there was always a dot or lifetap you could recast. AoE was decent because seed of corruption hit so hard. Aff scaled well for a few targets because dots hit so hard (pre-haunt days!). The only major drawback to the spec was that burst was terrible. Then during MoP, the high reward ceiling of snapshotting combined with the abuse of soul swap was at least a fun playstyle for awhile.

    Now during WoD, movement is okay, but not great (never seems to be very many dots that need updating when I need to move). AoE is god-awful (when did seed get so badly nerfed?!). Aff scales okay for a few targets but not great since the dots don't hit very hard without haunt. Burst still isn't very good for very short lived adds (no way I'm wasting a shard on soul swap!). Overall, the toolkit wouldn't be too bad if the AoE wasn't so painfully useless.

    2) Destruction

    My second favorite spec. I enjoyed Destro during late-BC during the OP sbolt spam, as well as the more reasonably balanced late WotLK phase. In MoP, our toolkit was so perfect that it was difficult to play any other spec. Movement was unreasonably perfect (KJC for near 100% ideal dps even with movement heavy fights or fel flame fit the role very well). Burst single target was excellent. Burst AoE was phenomenal. Sustained AoE was phenomenal. Single target was very good. The rotation wasn't very difficult, yet rewarded smart usage of chaos bolts, havoc, and shadowburn.

    Now? Movement is worse than it's ever been (not exaggerating!). AoE now takes a LOT of planning to even manage a few seconds of it, and drains our precious dps resources! (I didn't mind AoE in the old days when we just channeled RoF.) Burst single target is still excellent and sustained single target is good. The rotation is very similar to MoP, which I thought was fine. Overall, the toolkit went from perfection in all areas to very weak at movement and AoE.

    3) Demonology

    Honestly, I've never liked this spec. I've tried it a handful of times over the years and never "gotten it". I'm really trying to like it this time and I've been leveling and running a lot of dungeons with it. It just feels clunky. I never have enough procs of molten core when I want it (if I'm not specced for demonbolt) or I never have enough resources for AoE (if I'm not specced for cataclysm). I'm sure I can get more used to it, but it just doesn't feel good at all.

    Between the 3 specs, I'm having the most fun as Demonology because it at least has a good toolkit at all jobs (decent movement, good burst and sustained single target , good burst and sustained AoE), but the rotation feels very awkward to me because you have to plan so far in advance for what you want to do. It feels like you have very little room to adapt to the changing needs of the fight.

    So, no, I'm not having a lot of fun with my warlock. Affliction is a shadow of what it used to be. Destruction has been critically wounded in 2 very important areas. Demonology rotation feels awful to me. I don't really know what to do about it either. I've mained warlock for so many years that I hate the idea of playing anything else.

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Talthanor View Post
    I'm toying with the idea of making a DK for some Ashran fun. It's just hard to motivate myself since I dislike having achievements spread out across different characters.

    There really should be a proper account bound system. Especially with such major sweeping changes being made to various classes with each new patch/expansion.
    dks r fun but ashran is so ranged heavy !!! be prepared ..

    as for O,P i dunno how anyone honestly found destruction fun .. infact for my personal opinion destruction was the most boring class in wow to play .. and maybe thats because ive always loved demo !!! demo to me felt exciting fun .. jumpin in and out of stances being able to unleash my pets and just morph into what i thought was something bad ass .. not locks feel as if they fart in the wind .. i dunno what they can do to truly bring back any life to locks as they seem to be increasingly getting worse ..!!! even my main an spriest i refuse to play !! i agree casters r in a hard place ..!!! love my dk n pally tho .. hpal n unholy !!

  18. #18
    I still have some fun, otherwise I wouldn't be playing her, but I'm having *way* less of it than I was in MoP.
    I am totally cool with nerfing numbers into the ground, but the nerfing of smooth playstyles and the class's overall fun-factor has been atrocious.

  19. #19
    Stood in the Fire sasofrass's Avatar
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    I had fun with MoP affliction. I really enjoyed soul swap and how it functioned. Even without snapshotting I still would have really enjoyed that gameplay. To me it was fun passing my dots to everything and watching the numbers tick like crazy. Current WoD affliction is mediocre gameplay wise. The shard management is a nightmare and absolutely no fun. I don't enjoy sitting on one shard waiting to get a second to soulburn: haunt. I don't like the mediocre duration of my dots and having to manually apply them for almost no gain doesn't feel good at all. It was my favorite and now my least favorite of the three.

    Destruction feels generally the same, except when on the move. I don't feel good having to run and not cast, but I guess there isn't much else to say about it. It's OK. Chaos Bolt doesn't feel nearly as strong as before, so it's a little less thrilling to see the numbers.

    Demo also generally feels the same. I enjoy it. Lots of mobility, demon leap is my favorite thing ever. I also really enjoy demonbolt, though it makes the spec feel a bit more simplified. This is now my favorite of the three.


    Overall, I really only have fun with my lock when I get to leap around and shoot demonbolts and have huge cataclysms. Outside that, it feels lackluster and should probably be revisited for another revamp... specifically for affliction/destruction.

  20. #20
    Generally I haven't enjoyed affliction since BC and I thought mop destro was fun while kjc was a thing but other than that not so much. Now, I think both of those specs are extremely boring and I am personally loving demo which in the past I always hated but now it feels really fun.

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