Did you retire your warlock?

[ldev]

No, Destro changes in 7.1 are insaaaaane.

[blacki84]

playing my warlock since bc and i will never give him up!!!!
you don't choose to be a warlock - you are born to be one!

[Jessicka]

Did consider it, but since I've just had to accept I won't be raiding in any way seriously any time soon, I'll have plenty of time for her in the rest of the content.

[demonicpanda]

I tried, but lock has been my main for almost 12 years now, and I just can't put her down, even though I hate playing it. I'm loving the expansion, hating the class. But everything else doesn't feel right. Even my DH that I have a blast tanking on.

[Kanariya]

I did in MoP when they gutted Affliction and turned Destro into a broken OP ez-mode spec to lure in players to the class. Legion fortunately fixed Aff, but Fire is more fun.

[Muezick]

Any self respecting demo lock retired when they nerfed uvls.

But yeah basically.

[Tommy T]

Aff Lock here, still battling on in Heroic EN and Mythics+

Never give up.
Never surrender.

[Sidewalker]

Same with me - down to the retadin! Really appreciate the tempo of the lock dps. I know I'm getting edged out here and there, but definitely not the worst in the bunch. Not a glowing endorsement...but I'll still take it!

[muto]

Yes. It's not funny to play warlock now, especially affli and desro (aka weak fire mage). Rerolled into hunter (boring too but toping DPS meters).

Playing Warlock, and beating Hunters on dps meters.

[Struggle]

I did in MoP when they gutted Affliction and turned Destro into a broken OP ez-mode spec to lure in players to the class. Legion fortunately fixed Aff, but Fire is more fun.

Right there with you. I still played my warlock in MoP but after coming back when I left in Cata T1 for school I found it way too shadow priest-esque for my liking. To be fair, KJC was extremely fun, but that was it. I haven't enjoyed Affliction since Wrath, and it was my favorite spec since I started. Where it was, gameplay wise, at both the start and end of Wrath were perfect imo. MoP is when I really started playing my alts more, though. Liked my warrior a lot then, and played a BrM monk until HFC ruined them (dodged a bullet there too apparently looking at their current state).

I'm in the process of leveling my warlock now and I'd like to do Afflic and Destro as I've never been a fan of Demo, but pretty much solely for nostalgic reasons and it hurts emotionally to see all that time and dedication I put into him for years not be at max level.

Hope they fix it.

[lollified]

This is my post from another thread called "will fire mages be nerfed".. needless to say, I retired my warlock..

Will they nerf fire? That depends on the definition of OP from Blizzard's perspective.

My own definition of OP is any spec that has an answer for all of the following situations/problems:

Note: These are my personal opinions.



1. Movement intensive fights: Any spec in game should be able to handle movement. For a caster this should be in form of strong instant casts, ability to handle casting while moving, having spells to change your location instantly while for a melee this should be passive movement speed buffs along with abilities that allow you to jump distances. The said spec's DPS/HPS should not take a dramatically hit when a fight requires heavy movement. (Hello demo locks, also destro locks, also DK's)

2. Out of combat movement: As a content is outgeared, speed becomes an important factor. Normal/Heroic raid speed runs, low mythic+ dungeon speed runs arguably can be done by any class/spec combination, however some do it better. The said spec should be among the ones that handle in or out of combat movement while others just walk with 100% movement speed. (Hello DKs, Lock's without Burning Rush)

3. Fights that require burst AoE: The said spec should be able to handle burst AoE. The argument that whether burst AoE is an _important_ part of the game can go on forever, however speed runs require it, and important from your perspective or not, it is a part of the game and some classes handle it better while others can simply not (Hello so called OP shadow priests, demo warlocks)

4. Fights that require sustained AoE: The said spec should be able to do AoE damage on multiple targets and the output damage should be able to scale with the number of targets. Although most specsc an perform this in one way or other, there are some that simply can't. Multi DoT'ing manually is not a form of AoE as it's a GCD capped gameplay that does not scale in DPS as the number of targets increase (Hello shadow priests with no AoE spell (Mind Sear is extremely weak, does not count)) (Hello destro locks without Fire and Brimstone)

5. Fights that require sustained or burst cleaving of couple of targets: The said spec should be able to cleave 2-3 targets. Most specs can handle this if the fight goes long enough. Some specs excel at it only if fight is long (Hello sp, affliction) and others are balanced around it (Hello low single target dps Destro lock because you are balanced around Wreak Havoc). Also, the spec should be able to do this with relative ease, because why the hell not? Some spec's have passives or abilities that spread passively and others have abilities that do AoE damage in their single target rotation.

6. Fights that require burst single target damage: Again, the argument that whether burst is important or not can go on forever, however in any content you start to outgear, burst becomes more and more important.

7. Fights that require sustained single target damage: The spec should be able to do good single target damage. Although most bosses have spawning add mechanics that require people to cleave or AoE during the fight, if/when there's a single target fight, the spec should be able to prove competitive. There are some specs that excel at this with relying certain (broken, badly designed, disgusting) mechanics like Surrender to Madness and thus get labeled as overpowered, however it should also be mentioned that the certain spec does tank level dps pre execute phase. In short, the spec should be able to perform at an acceptable level in single target fights. (Hello affliction locks, frost dk's, pre execute sp's or any sp's without StM, destruction warlocks that are balanced around Wreak Havoc)





The spec should be able to perform above average in all of the above situations without gimmicky talent preferences or without constant talent swapping costs. If for example a destro warlock have to go Fire and Brimstone, Grimoire of Sacrifice, Wreak Havoc just to try to stay competitive in cleave and AoE, and thus gimp single target damage immensely, then for me this is a problem. Either the said warlock is in a raid environment and he'll go for ST or at most cleave talent setup, (which are actually two different setups in their own right) and others will clear trash for him, or he's in a mythic+ dungeon where he's kind of carrying his own weight in trash, however will rely on others to carry him during boss (Hello mythic + 10 or more (even more fun with Tyrannical)), or he will have to swap talents constantly when some other specs can take a single talent configuration and be more than OK at everything.



The spec also should be able to perform above average in all of the above situations without .... rerolling?

Why should any spec have to go afk while others handle for example bats or spiders in BRH or slimes in EoA? Why should certain specs not be able to compete in speed Mythics?

Outside of raid content, mythic+ dungeons is a very good way to play and gear up your class. You can either get raid ready with mythic+ dungeons or mythic+ can even be the end game for you.



During the mythic+ run there is a timer and chests have gear in them, which can roll warforged, titanforged. Which means, even if you outgear mythic+4 and your spec can do a 3 chest run with relatively ease, some drop can roll Titanforged and be an upgrade for you. So your spec should handle timers and speed.



You should be able to enjoy every bit of content, from normal/heroic/mythic raiding to low mythic+ runs or high mythic+ runs.





Is for example shadow priest OP? Not even close, can't handle speed kills, no aoe, no burst, useless outside of StM.

Is for example unholy DK OP? Not even close, low single target damage outside of cleave or burst (dps starts high drops immensely), no mobility, slow as fuk.

Is for example frost DK OP? rofl.

Is for example destro lock OP? Not even close, slow as fuk, movement hinders dps, requires constant talent swapping in order to perform below average at everything.

Is for example affliction lock OP? rofl. affliction lock can talent into Sow the Seeds talent to become half a real spec in game

Is for example WW monk OP? hell ye.

Is for example fire mage OP? hell ye. I paid 50 bucks to boost one. However it's hard to nerf Fire Mages without literally removing stuff from talent tree or spell book. Toolkit is too strong even if the numbers can go up and down from hotfix to hotfix.

Is for example MM hunter OP? hell ye.

Is for example outlaw rogue OP? grey area.



TLDR;

For me a spec is only OP if it allows you to enjoy every tiny bit of content in game. Class fantasy and game design heading away from homogenization should not cripple a spec and a spec should be able to handle and/or be good or acceptable at:

1. Movement heavy fights,

2. Out of combat movement,

3. Burst or sustained AoE,

4. Burst or sustained cleave,

5. Burst or sustained single target

situations and should not require you to constantly swap talents or else gimp yourself to oblivion.



As for fire mages, I don't think it is possible to nerf fire mages without removing random talents from talent tree or abilities/passives from spell book. Blizzard's definition of OP seems to be nerfing those who excel at something (StM) rather than nerfing those who are above acceptable at everything. Numbers can go up and down but in current iteration of the game, toolkit is everything and fire mage toolkit is very well 'balanced'.

[DeadmanWalking]

Here's the thing, you can come to the forums and scream and hollar that it isn't #1, and you can run off to create another character that is the #1 dps class but with a flip of the switch on Blizzards end the #1 is suddenly in the same place warlock was and warlock is stronger than it was and you just wasted several months worth of weapon attunements and progression chasing the new fotm class. All that bitching and infantile screaming comes to nothing because you forgot that one simple rule, nothing stays #1 forever and Blizzard is always tweeking things throughout an expansion.

[Kithelle]

Used my boost on a priest, planning to do heals.
Realised during the first level in that I really missed the playstyle of my affli-lock and haven't touched the priest since. Now I'm logging on to do emissaries and maintain the AK-Research.

Getting discouraged by the state of affliction at the moment. It really feels like the specc is broken at its core, and it will take some time before this is even acknowledged by the dev-team. Until I see some proper changes to locks, I'm gonna get hackin with Hackmud.

Not saying give up your lock, but could play shadow as a alt, it has some similarities to affliction.

[Deleted]

hell yea I did. and people that try to argue that Warlock being weak is only temporary need to actually understand what is wrong with the class. first off, the fact that Blizz would even neglect a pure DPS class like that already shows that they do not really care about Warlocks. and also plain simply with the exception of maybe Demo, Warlock specs are outright badly designed. so even if there are number buffs eventually, I doubt that Blizz will ever rework the specs to be actually good in design. I mean just look at Affliction for Christ's sake. this used to be a spec that juggled 3+ Dots and various cooldowns and debuffs, and maintaining a proper uptime on those would be hugely rewarding. nowadays the same spec is maintaining ONE dot. no amount of tuning will ever make Affliction feel rewarding, because they clearly showed that they want the spec to be dumbed down like that.
if you want to see a spec that is actually well designed just look at Fire. the spec is designed around a very clear mechanic and all your spells just have perfect synergy with each other. but then even though the design is rather simple it offers a lot of ways to play smart which in turn feels really rewarding and obviously gives you high damage numbers, too. that's why imo Fire Mages have no reason to fear being nerfed, since even if their numbers end up being adjusted their spec design will still remain superior to anything Warlock has to offer.

[Deleted]

hell yea I did. and people that try to argue that Warlock being weak is only temporary need to actually understand what is wrong with the class. first off, the fact that Blizz would even neglect a pure DPS class like that already shows that they do not really care about Warlocks. and also plain simply with the exception of maybe Demo, Warlock specs are outright badly designed. so even if there are number buffs eventually, I doubt that Blizz will ever rework the specs to be actually good in design. I mean just look at Affliction for Christ's sake. this used to be a spec that juggled 3+ Dots and various cooldowns and debuffs, and maintaining a proper uptime on those would be hugely rewarding. nowadays the same spec is maintaining ONE dot. no amount of tuning will ever make Affliction feel rewarding, because they clearly showed that they want the spec to be dumbed down like that.
if you want to see a spec that is actually well designed just look at Fire. the spec is designed around a very clear mechanic and all your spells just have perfect synergy with each other. but then even though the design is rather simple it offers a lot of ways to play smart which in turn feels really rewarding and obviously gives you high damage numbers, too. that's why imo Fire Mages have no reason to fear being nerfed, since even if their numbers end up being adjusted their spec design will still remain superior to anything Warlock has to offer.

I definitely do agree that some mechanical changes to all three warlock specs would be welcome. However I do wonder if you played much of your lock to say affliction has been simplified. We actually have an extra dot now since siphon life is back, and you generally don't take unending corruption so you do still have corruption. When to use UA is far more involved now than it was since it's about monitoring compounding horror stacks and artifact ability timing, that combined with the buffs from things dying make affliction a very involved spec indeed. The problem I feel is there are all these things to pay attention to and optimise however it's just so incredibly unsatisfying to do them right compared to someone like a mage or hunter who just goes through the motions and blows affliction out of the water in most scenarios.

I have a fire mage as well and while I agree that it is very well designed, I think the rotation is far simpler and less involved than any of the warlock specs. It's just waiting for combustion then doing the cast sequence which is the same every single time, then making sure flame on, phoenix flames and rune of power are back for the next combustion with no change for multiple targets until it's full mass aoe. Fire is interesting but I feel the thing that differentiates a good and a bad fire mage is more about using their mobility to maximise their uptime rather than pulling off their rotation optimally.

[Animatelol]

retired lock at the beginning of Legion, switched to Rogue and got pretty deep into Outlaw. now i'm regretting it.

[dwightyo39]

Actually I just leveled my destro from 100-110. I was planning on playing destro as my main, but after playing beta and seeing how they destroyed chaos bolt, I opted to play another class. The chaos bolt pvp buff has me looking forward to dropping bombs on all these damn fucking rogues and DHs.

[Deezlar]

Literally just retired my lock.

Doing everything I possibly could to make it work put me well below people with 15 iLevels lower engaging 10% of the effort.

I'm quite sad actually, because I love my lock and I really want to play it, but raiding for me has not been anything close to fun.

[zephix]

Already decided on doing it in prepatch, the core mechanics of destru just isnt as fluent as they used to be in MoP (and even WoD was better).
I switched back to balance that I originally played till I went destru in MoP since they got some major love, and feels more like what destru used to be, than what it is currently

Edit: forgot to qq about what they did to GoSac, making it never worth using on ST is one thing, but having no silence with it is an over the top nerf imo

[VladimirM]

My guilddiWe killed Ursoc M last night with 3 warlocks in raid so we arent bad by any means. One was 3rd and rest 2 of us went full retard mode and were 9th and 10th cos of our stupid mistakes, but we are capable of pushing much much more. Having in mind that next up are dragons, and Wreak Havoc is god tier to deal with adds, we are more than useful (hello ilgnoth (or however you spell that stupid name of that Eye) and Cenarius and Xavius also tbh) and we can compete with other classes.
So to answer you topic q - nope, not going to retire it.